Fleet surgeon Howard E. Ames recommends that the enclosed list of food be sent to the U.S. Emergenc...
Photograph showing an elevated view of the White House garden and 16th Street, taken during Preside...
Photograph showing White House gardens, taken during President Roosevelt's administration.
What we get to eat in the country
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Vignettes show a country woman harvesting canned fruits and vegetables from "The Quaint Old Kitchen Garden," surrounded with scenes of a young boy catching canned "Salmon" from a stream filled with other canned fish, an old man trying to catch cans of chicken running about the farm yard, a man loading a wagon at the "Freight Depot" with food products shipped from New York, and a milkmaid at a dairy opening a can of "Condensed Milk" at "Milking Time." Caption: "Table stocked daily with an abundance of eggs, milk, fresh fish and vegetables."
The caption of S. D. Ehrhart's topical genre cartoon is, of course, a phrase that frequently appeared in brochures, signs, and newspaper advertisements for weekend or summer-vacation getaways at farms and rural spots. Whether farmers were committed to sell their produce to larger concerns, and needed to rely on canned goods, or not, Ehrhart's cartoon probably was more representational than satirical.
These days it can be difficult to find, say, orange juice that is not from fruit grown in Mexico, Brazil, etc., according to labels. Or avocados not with Mexico or other Central American "countries of origin," even when purchased within miles of Temecula, California, where ninety per cent of all avocados are grown.
Perhaps the point of the cartoon, at least to contemporary readers, might be "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" -- "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
1906-07-25
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937
What we get to eat in the country.
Prints and Photographs division.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o285715.
Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Link to other styles
Cartoon
U.S. President - 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)
J. Ottmann Lithographic Company
Puck, v. 59, no. 1534
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
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