Kitchen's From the Late 1800's to the early 1900's



Here's some kitchens to make you think about how bad it really is the next time your dishwasher dies and you have to wash dishes by hand. Learning about these amazing ladies and how their

During the very early part of this time period, alot of kneeling was done in front of the hearth while you did your cooking and it took awhile for early stoves to progress to thier current height. The women that were lucky enough to own one I'm sure were happy nontheless. Here's a great and abolutely fascinating website if you love the look of antique stoves called StoveHospital. I stumbled upon it and am convinced we need one now:)

The last 2 pictures are from 1903 and are in the book "Homes And Their Decoration", by Lillie Hamilton French. You can read the full book by clicking the title of this post.

The most important issue in kitchen design of this time period was practicality and usefullness above all else. The authors of housekeeping and cookbooks, who were the rockstars of their time and were major movers and shakers of style and popular culture. These special ladies were trying to get others to leave the excessive and showiness of the victorian decorating style and thought that anything unnessesary or purely for decorative purposes was considered in bad taste. Some of the influence of this more minimalist syle came from all of the brand spankin new scientific data coming out about cleanliness and hygiene. Also the benefits of freash air in the home and the harmful effects of dust and ash and coal residue from fuels were big factors influencing how the typical housewife made her everyday choices.
It's funny though that looking at these kitchens today, with simplistic and minimalist in-style at the moment, I wonder what those authors and housewives from long ago would think of our kitchens:)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Never again will I grumble becasue it's my turn to empty the dishwasher! :-)

Vintage Cookbooks are for everyone who has ever wanted to bake something special and turned to a modern cookbook and realized they never seem to have all the ingredients at the same time, there're for history lovers that want to feel connected to the past in a way that's missing in history books, there're for the people that love that musty old book smell and laugh at kindle's, they're for people that feel like we as a society have gone a little too far, a tad off course with life and want to get back to the simple and the real, and they're for the people that want to pay homage to all the grandma's and great aunts that did it best!

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