The Democratization of Ice

It is difficult for most of us to imagine how drastically our lives and our diets would change if we suddenly lost all refrigeration. No more cooled or frozen foods. No iced drinks, air conditioning, medical uses of ice and cold—and no ice cream!

But not so long ago, before refrigeration, people preserved meat mainly by drying or salting, milk in the form of butter and cheese, and fresh fruits and vegetables were available only seasonally and in areas where they were grown.

Throughout history the wealthy and powerful had icehouses and ice available to them in limited quantities. But it took American ingenuity to make ice available to all—the democratization of ice was largely due to a 19th century Yankee businessman or two who first harvested and later manufactured their frozen assets.

The U-M Clements Library's exhibition “The Iceman Cometh...and Goeth” (June 8 – Oct. 1 with the main lecture on Sept. 19) will explore the history of the US ice industry from New England pond ice harvesting to the introduction of mechanical refrigeration. Curator Jan Longone says the exhibition will include:

•  the story of the Ice King, Frederic Tudor and his collaborator, the inventor Nathaniel Wyeth.

•  the 1803 book by Thomas Moore, An Essay on the Most Eligible Construction of Ice-Houses; Also, a Description of the Newly Invented Machine Called a Refrigerator (in Baltimore).

•  the tools, equipment and methods of natural ice harvesting—and its distribution, including the successful arrival in 1833 of a ship carrying ice from Boston to Calcutta, crossing the equator twice.

•  the manufactured ice industry and how it revolutionized food and eating in the United States.

•  the Ice Queen, Mary E. Pennington.

•  the introduction of mechanical refrigerators, with the millionth Frigidaire sold by 1929 and the millionth GE Refrigerator by 1931.

•  icehouses, icecards, icemen, ice boxes, tools of the trade, advertising.

For more information, go to http://www.clements.umich.edu/Exhibits/iceman/index.html

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