As week two draws to a close, it's becoming apparent just how much work I really have to do in one short semester. My main focus so far has been to define the scope of the project, and I have been browsing digital collections online (including the Iowa Heritage Digital Collections, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections, and Documenting Pitt) to get an idea of what would be a realistic size to aim for. After consulting with my project mentor, Nicki Saylor, the consensus seems to be that somewhere between 50 and 100 items would be a reasonable goal. That's something of a relief, because I had envisioned having to deal with a much larger number.
But on the other hand, this creates a new challenge: coming up with a cohesive structure for such a small subset of pamphlets. Should it be either food or appliance pamphlets? Pamphlets from the 1880s through the 1920s? Pamphlets demonstrating the health claims of early product advertisements, or ones that reflect the changing roles of women in the kitchen? Although I am personally more interested in the oldest pamphlets, after much waffling (and again, guidance from Nicki) I'm tentatively planning to feature highlights of the collection in a timeline format, with each decade up through the 1960s or 70s represented. This will allow viewers to get a broad overview of how eating habits and food production have evolved over the course of a century.
Now begins the time consuming task of poring over the thousands of pamphlets, in search of the most interesting and informative ones to include. It feels a little like digging through a treasure chest. My favorite so far is a Wrigley Spearmint gum pamphlet from 1915, which features a "spear-man" reciting nursery rhymes. I'm trying to muster the same enthusiasm for the kitschy ads of the 50s and 60s...they're less unique, and I'm easily distracted by more arcane products like the Air-O-Mix "Whip All" food aerator (which, according to early 20th- century experts, makes food somehow magically more nutritious).
I've also been spending time researching U.S. food history and copyright law - an important issue that could figure into the selection process, as many of the pamphlets are copyrighted. I'll touch on those topics in my next post.
