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Spring 1-1-2003 Wendy A. Woloson. Refined aT stes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth‐Century America Ken Albala University of the Pacific, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Albala, K. (2003). Wendy A. Woloson. Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth‐Century America. Winterthur Portfolio, 38(1), 72–76. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cop-facarticles/70

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Faculty Scholarship at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of the Pacific aF culty Articles by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 72 Winterthur Portfolio 38:1 upon American material life, the articles pri- ture, anthropologists, and sociologists as well as marily address objects and individuals within the food historians. It also serves as a vivid account Delaware River valley. Philadelphia, New Jersey, of the emergence of consumer culture in gen- and Delaware are treated extensively. Outlying eral, focusing on the democratization of once- Quaker communities, such as those in New En- expensive sweets due to new technologies and in- gland, North Carolina, and New York state, are es- dustrial production and their shift from symbols sentially absent from the study. Similarly, the vol- of power and status to indulgent ephemera best ume focuses overwhelmingly upon the material life left to women and children. Woloson is particu- of the elite of American Quaker society. Carved larly apt at describing how candy itself was classi- Chippendale high chests, Duncan Phyfe sofas, and fied (expensive French bonbons for the elite and portraits by John Singleton Copley and Charles cheaper sweets for the common rabble) and how Willson Peale are lovely to contemplate, but their the middle and lower classes, through social emu- inclusion in these studies probably reflects the hier- lation, continually forced exclusive confectioners archies of late-twentieth-century connoisseurship to reinvent their products to maintain distinction. rather than these objects’ centrality to historical That is, the catalysts of fashion and taste in sweets constructions of American Quaker identity. were its very ubiquity and the myriad ways produc- The greatest success of Quaker Aesthetics is that ers sought to capture new markets. it demonstrates the complexity of the question The author shows that to nineteenth-century addressed. By investigating the material with Americans, the meaning of sugar not only which believers shaped their worlds, this volume changed over time but was created by a complex indicates that a monolithic American Quakerism interplay of competing voices, a phenomenon has never existed. It introduces us to varied true of all consumables, especially food. Objects Quaker identities that developed in the Delaware can mean varied things to different people, or River valley as the result of divisions in class, time, even to the same person, depending on the con- and religious orthodoxy. Instead of codifying a re- text or company. Woloson describes shrewd ad- ified American Quaker aesthetic, this book in- vertising campaigns, the opinions of nutritionists forms us of the various ways in which believers and food-purity experts, the stern warnings of ra- have negotiated the Friends’ spiritual ambiva- bid reformers, and then the ideas and aspirations lence to the physical world. Rather than furnish- of consumers themselves negotiating among ing one simple answer to the intricate and impor- these various claims. In the end, sugar and sweet- tant question of how Quaker belief has affected ness became feminized as the domestic ideal of American material culture, the authors and edi- the period increasingly cast women as pretty pos- tors clarify the questions we should ask in estab- sessions, themselves to be adorned, admired, and lishing our own conclusions. consumed as status symbols. Whether the Valen- tine’s Day gift, ice cream in an elegant pleasure William D. Moore garden or saloon, or a grandiose wedding cake, University of North Carolina at Wilmington these items were increasingly fetishized as indis- pensable conveyors of personal sentiment and af- Wendy A. Woloson. Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confec- fection, even as they were mass produced. tionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth-Century Amer- Indeed, something sinister lurks beneath all ica. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, these processes in Woloson’s account. She points 2002.xiϩ277 pp.; 36 illustrations, essay on sources, out how children were trained to be competitive index. $46.00. consumers at the candy-store window, how the food industries usurped socially meaningful tradi- Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers tions of production for holidays and special occa- in Nineteenth-Century America is an elegantly struc- sions within the family setting, and how artisinal tured and beautifully written exploration of the confectioners were pushed out by machines changing meaning of candy, ice cream, and re- cranking out shoddy imitations. Some nostalgia lated confections in nineteenth-century America. surfaces here, although we are never really shown The book ultimately explains how sugar has today that candy was once a true manifestation of indi- gained its preeminent role in the American diet. vidual creativity connecting the craftsman or do- As a biography of comestibles and how their for- mestic producer with eager and appreciative con- tunes reflect larger changes in American society, sumers. Marx, or perhaps even William Morris, the book will appeal to historians of material cul- seems to unconsciously pervade these pages. Not

This content downloaded from 138.009.041.187 on December 06, 2016 13:00:10 PM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Book Reviews 73 that this thread mars the account, but it runs con- sarily intensified as sweets became increasingly sistently through the narrative, and the reader, available in ever more forms to the masses. Apart with hindsight, is often left wishing that the mor- from a few dissenters, whom Woloson cites, nine- alists’ dire exhortations had been heeded and teenth-century consumers blithely munched their that we had not unwittingly become a sugar- candies without the slightest concern, yet another addicted culture. way this story relates hauntingly to the present. Refined Tastes picks up a story where three clas- Woloson also masterfully illustrates the role of sics of food studies left off: Sidney Mintz’s Sweet- advertising in promoting the American sweet ness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, tooth, particularly the ways in which manufactur- Elizabeth David’s Harvest of the Cold Months, and ers created meaning for consumers. The success- Michael Coe and Sophie Coe’s True History of ful marketing strategy sold not just candy but a Chocolate.1 It focuses on the American side of complex message or even a lifestyle. Manufactur- the story but also carefully probes the meaning ers allowed children to mimic adult behaviors by of these sweets in a specific and shifting eco- puffing candy cigarettes or playing with miniature nomic context. The author points out correctly versions of status objects cast in sugar or tin. Ad- that America was a good century behind Eu- vertising encouraged middle-class women to as- rope in the marginalization of sweets and their in- pire socially by receiving elegant candy boxes creasing association with immature and effeminate that imitated elite confectionery. Modern conve- palates. Sugar retained its aristocratic bearing nience foods allowed housewives to impress their much longer in the United States due to its lim- guests by presenting them with fancy molded ice ited availability well into the eighteenth century. cream forms, demonstrations of the women’s lar- This fact perhaps explains the rapid and decisive gesse and dexterity as well as their leisure time de- shift in meaning that sugar experienced once it voted to such frippery while servants did the hard finally became available and affordable. Sugar work. Once again, one can not help but think sculptures remained as vestigial rudiments of me- how much our own culture is informed by the dieval “subtleties,” but sugar had also evolved into nineteenth-century processes Woloson describes. new species, such as penny candies, portable ice The author recounts many smaller and equally cream cones, and a variety of other popular con- fascinating stories as well. Each chapter presents a fections, that were better adapted to compete in smaller vignette that highlights the larger themes. the transformed marketplace. The first chapter focuses on sugar itself and its his- Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the tory up to the colonial period. In America, simply story is how Americans consistently and con- because of its scarcity, sugar remained the exclu- sciously ignored the harsh realities of sugar and sive preserve of the wealthy and was used primarily cacao production on what were at first slave plan- as a condiment, much like spices, or as medicine tations. This ignorance itself is another facet of in small amounts. Yet Woloson demonstrates that modern foodways that the author illustrates well: when production began to be mechanized in the consumers increasingly disregarded the conse- nineteenth century, Americans were well posi- quences of their eating habits as products became tioned to become major consumers of the white cheaper, more available, and in greater supply. refined variety, rather than maple sugar and mo- For wealthy people in the eighteenth century, the lasses. Beyond new technologies, such new sources rarity of sugar, its exotic origins, and the domi- as sugar beets and new territories where sugar nation of colonial possessions required for its could be grown facilitated the proliferation of growth and manufacture were merely salient sugar in the American diet. proof of the power of those who could afford to Chapter 2 explores how children were inge- indulge. Yet during the nineteenth century, these niously targeted—indeed, trained as future con- associations inevitably fell away, and sweets be- sumers—through the candy-shop window. Woloson came demoted and feminized. Exploitation of carefully counterpoises the voices of reformers, who workers in both the field and the factory neces- were concerned over issues of food purity and fear- ful lest these adolescent indulgences blossom into 1 Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Mod- such adult vices as drinking and smoking, with the ern History (New York: Penguin Books, 1986); Elizabeth David and inevitable onslaught of new ways to cram sweets Jill Norman, Harvest of the Cold Months: The History of Ice and Ices down children’s gullets. She explains how the stim- (New York: Viking, 1995); Michael D. Coe and Sophie D. Coe, The True History of Chocolate (New York: Thames and Hudson, ulation of artificial desires, which prompted chil- 1996). dren to become discerning shoppers who could

This content downloaded from 138.009.041.187 on December 06, 2016 13:00:10 PM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). 74 Winterthur Portfolio 38:1 maximize their buying power by choosing from a town. Next, as technology advanced with the ad- vast array of cheap candies, made permanent com- vent of the soda fountain, ice cream became de- petitive consumers out of an entire generation. mocratized. Drug stores and department stores, Through candy and the toys included with it, chil- fitted with the latest, most fashionable, gleaming dren learned to “appreciate the power of posses- machines, brought frozen confections to the sions. . . . Like adults, children of all classes busied masses. Finally the street vendor, often an Italian themselves by amassing a collection of parapherna- immigrant, brought ice cream to the poor in the lia that provided evidence of one’s life experiences street. Naturally these operations threatened the and economic status” (p. 47). In the era of indus- posh establishments, and moralists were quick to trial capitalism, you are what you own, and that lash out against the unsanitary nature of pushcart manufacturers could hammer this message so thor- peddlers. Indeed, this story continues to unfold oughly into children’s heads is truly daunting. That today. Small operators are pushed out by larger these premiums were usually miniature versions of manufacturers advertising their wholesome ingre- adult status symbols, “talismans,” as Woloson as- dients, modern and streamlined operations, and tutely calls them, only drives home the point that pristine service staff. stimulating the desire to acquire was the ultimate Chapter 4 focuses on chocolate. Once the ex- goal of the manufacturers in the first place. Further- otic aphrodisiac beverage associated with the ef- more, the irony, here as elsewhere, is that these fete Spanish aristocracy, chocolate, too, shifts unique possessions were owned by every child on from being a food of the gods (the botanical no- the block, if not across the country. menclature is theobroma) to a treat for the masses. As in other chapters of Refined Tastes, Woloson Technology is once again responsible, in the shows how purchasing patterns served to strengthen form of the mid-nineteenth-century invention of class hierarchies. Children unable to afford expen- affordable solid eating chocolate. Here Woloson sive treats were consigned to a few penny candies traces the history of French bonbons, elegantly while driven to lust after the finer types. Even the packaged and outrageously expensive, which rebukes of moralists are classist in this case. Attacks were given as tokens of affection. The more ex- on the degrading effects of eating candy tainted pensive the chocolate, the deeper the sentiment. with poisonous dyes, unwrapped, in the form of ci- Even the boxes became objects of desire and, gars and liquor bottles, and consumed in the streets when fitted with frills, were suitable metaphors by filthy urchins sharply contrasted with the more for women themselves: ornate packages for some- civilized party thrown by wealthy and doting parents thing soft, ephemeral, and of little substance. who could assure the quality and domestic purity of Advertisers naturally capitalized on the erotic as- the sweets they served to their children. sociations of gooey, tumescent sweetmeats and A chapter on ice cream provides further in- co-opted personal expressions of affection with sight into the larger themes. Ice cream also began the mass-produced Valentine’s Day assortment. as a rare luxury item, particularly because of the The “sentiments of Valentine’s Day had become difficulty of cutting and storing ice from inland inextricably embedded in the world of com- ponds during the winter to be used later in the merce, and a personalized, heartfelt gift merely a heat of summer. Here, the story of the democrati- purchase away” (p. 132). The industry had trans- zation of ice cream shifts to the actual sites of con- formed that holiday, along with Easter, into just sumption. At first there were exclusive pleasure another opportunity to make a dollar. As Wolo- gardens, magical settings separate from the bustle son puts it, “This was part of a trend that replaced of the city where wealthy people could escape, human relationships and personal sentiment with flirt with the opposite sex, and enjoy a cold dollop commodities” (p. 148). of ice cream—only if they could afford the entry Chocolates nonetheless remained a danger- fee, of course. Before long the middle classes ous indulgence in the minds of reformers, espe- sought to sate their own palates, and ice cream cially if eaten in private by women. As a reciprocal was increasingly sold in tarted-up “saloons” act, the gift giving of chocolate was considered a decked with mirrors and froufrou, which in- necessary part of courtship ritual; alone, however, dulged their aspirations to gentility, albeit in a it signaled submission to base and uncontrollable less expensive setting. These shops were specifi- urges, something especially hazardous among cally designed to appeal to women, for whom they women who were supposed to be nurturing and afforded a measure of freedom while on the giving. Could this attitude be the root of our own

This content downloaded from 138.009.041.187 on December 06, 2016 13:00:10 PM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Book Reviews 75 ambivalence toward chocolate, perhaps along produced) perversities such as wedding bells, cupids, with a good dose of fat anxiety? For nineteenth- doves, wishbones, miniature brides and grooms, century thinkers, the chocoholic represented a and one that seems to defy explanation—“Dwarf threat to the moral fiber of society; coupled with pushing Wheelbarrow with Flowers” (p. 182). cheap romances, bonbons threatened to entice The final chapter of Refined Tastes focuses on women beyond their station and outside of the the domestic scene, the infiltration of sugar into protection of the sacred conjugal bed. Woloson culinary culture, and what “home-made” came to is really at her most acute in this type of analysis. mean for nineteenth-century Americans. Cook- Cakes serve as the subject of the next chap- books and candymaking manuals taught women ter—in particular, wedding cakes and ornamen- not only how to make a plethora of dainties to tal sugar work. Professionals in this trade were impress their families and friends but also what highly trained and at first catered solely to the constituted their proper role as mothers. At the wealthiest households. Sugar sculptures originate same time, the marketplace penetrated the shel- in the medieval “subtlety,” as Woloson points out, tered domestic sphere, as store-bought goods but the direct stylistic ancestor of nineteenth- promised to ease the burden of creating these century sugar work is really the Renaissance and confections. Powdered gelatin is perhaps the best the baroque era. This chapter delves briefly into example of industry fostering the consumption of changing fashions, although more analysis of why sugar while advertising convenience and allowing and how neoclassical ornament vied with neo- women to create imitations of labor-intensive Gothic and precisely what these forms meant to upper-class confections. The popularity of home consumers might have proved more interesting. ice cream machines did much the same. Whether This century is, after all, one of nationalism and food technology really spelled the demise of idyl- a return to Germanic roots, myth, folktales, and lic family rituals of candymaking and ice cream popular music. It further represents a conscious making, as Woloson suggests, or merely made rejection of aristocratic, classical ornament and some unpleasant tasks easier is a matter for de- occurs just as such products are brought to a pop- bate. (She even admits how disgusting making ular, or at a least middle-class, audience. Wolo- gelatin from calves’ feet can be.) Yet, one cannot son’s study of the ways in which the more exclu- argue with her assertion that “homemade ice sive artisans clung to the standard putti, grottoes, cream from the best ingredients must have been swags, and classical forms while castigating the richer and more satisfying in taste and texture tawdry, colorful efforts of the mass producers is than that mixed from a box of chemically formu- yet another thought-provoking line of inquiry. lated powder” (p. 205). Woloson’s discussion of the wedding cake as The gradual shift from preparing sweets as a bride—both lavish displays meant to assert status, household chore to creating showpieces as an act the domination by the husband who chose its of leisure is another way that this era prefigures form, and its eventual consumption by guests—is our own. Having the free time to devote to such truly fascinating. The act of cutting into the cake tasks and then using them to boost one’s reputa- (the author might have added “deflowering” as tion among guests are good illustrations of how well) brings a new perspective to this strange rit- cooking in general gradually became a leisure ac- ual that persists today. tivity, especially among those who could afford As in other chapters, the advent of mecha- not to cook at all. That cookbooks promoting la- nized production, cheap imitations sold to the bor-saving ingredients and gadgets taught women masses, and the concomitant loss of specialized to make these homemade and old-fashioned craftsmanship are construed as a classic paradox. treats is an irony not lost on the author. But one On one hand, democratizing sugar and cake dec- has to wonder whether these innovations really orations brought these products to a broader cli- did displace “personal manuscript recipe books entele, but it also made the artistry obsolete, or that women used to keep—which through their at least more expensive and exclusive where it sur- circulation, solidified community bonds and re- vived at all. One could say much the same of the inforced family traditions” (p. 213). This rosy pic- entire arts and crafts movement, its socialist con- ture might prove to be as much of a myth as is the nections notwithstanding. For those who had to set- traditional nuclear family. Could it not be equally tlefortheaffordablesugarornaments,uniqueness possible that some women first learned to cook was found in buying eccentric (although mass- from printed cookbooks and that manuscript

This content downloaded from 138.009.041.187 on December 06, 2016 13:00:10 PM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). 76 Winterthur Portfolio 38:1 cookbooks were largely the preserve of the elite, after J. B. Jackson, a fascinating collection of essays perhaps even proliferating because of the broader about the American cultural landscape recently print culture? published under the editorship of Chris Wilson Despite this dose of nostalgia, Refined Tastes ul- ( J. B. Jackson Professor of Cultural Landscape timately proves to be an extremely astute exami- Studies at the University of New Mexico School nation of the ways in which sugar and confections of Architecture and Planning) and Paul Groth demarcated social boundaries and constructed (associate professor in the departments of Archi- gender roles in the nineteenth century. Central tecture and Geography at the University of Cali- to the story is the influence of technology and fornia, Berkeley). As the title suggests, the anthol- mass production in transforming the meaning of ogy celebrates Jackson’s contributions to the field sweets and how their democratization forced the while also functioning as a timely survey of cul- reinvention of new and more elaborate creations tural landscape studies in America. Like other among the wealthy. As simply an explanation of books in the Festschrift vein honoring senior how Americans became such avid consumers of scholars that have become fashionable recently, it sugar, this book is superb and can be recom- pays homage to Jackson, with many of the essays mended highly. The postscript on the present is in the volume coming from his students or well worth waiting for. friends and nearly all of them centered on land- scapes that Jackson studied or certainly would Ken Albala have found of interest, particularly ordinary ones. University of the Pacific What distinguishes this anthology are the ways it challenges what we have become accustomed to with volumes of this type. One notable difference is that the book has a lengthy section devoted to Chris Wilson and Paul Groth, eds. Everyday teaching and fieldwork that gives it practical appli- America: Cultural Landscape Studies after J. B. cability for those of us working in the field and Jackson. Berkeley: University of California Press, makes the book appealing to lay readers, even 2003.xϩ385 pp.; 111 illustrations, index. $49.95 those who may never have heard of Jackson. Fur- (cloth); $19.95 (paper). ther, while none of the authors in the volume would deny Jackson’s pivotal role in shaping cul- “A rich and beautiful book is always open before us. tural landscape studies, many of them engage with We have but to learn how to read it.” This oft-cited contradictions or problems with his “method” as quote by John Brinckherhoff Jackson appeared in a means of raising questions about the field today, thefirstvolumeofLandscape, ajournalJackson something unusual for these types of volumes, founded in 1951 as the first, and at that time exclu- which rarely are critical of the person being hon- sive, publication venue for studies of American cul- ored. Finally, the range of approaches taken by tural landscapes. Written as part of the statement contributors to the volume suggests that the field of intentions for the journal, Jackson’s quote served is anything but stagnant and homogenous; if cele- (and continues to serve) as a call-to-arms for those brated by the editors as evidence of the field’s “po- interested in studying the landscape. It also speaks lyphony” and “strength,” it is unusual for a Fest- profoundly to Jackson’s legacy, for it is with the in- schrift to rejoice in this, particularly given that the tent to “read” the landscape that scholars today, authors often move far from Jackson in several working in disciplines and fields as different as ways. If partly celebrating and honoring Jackson’s American studies, anthropology, architectural his- legacy, the book is in fact much more than that; tory, folklore, geography, history, and landscape ar- it is essential reading for anyone interested in cul- chitecture, continue Jackson’s project of exploring tural landscape studies specifically and material and interpreting the history of America’s diverse culture more broadly, particularly because it ad- places. In addition, Jackson’s statement may be un- dresses head-on the issues of how one “reads” the derstood as a challenge to persons engaged in land- landscape and for what purposes. For a field such scape study, for learning how to read the landscape as cultural landscape studies, which is still, and involves considering questions of method and perhaps always will be, (re)defining itself, asking agenda that no one working in the field today can such questions never proves fruitless, and the es- ignore. says in this volume, which collectively prompt re- It is with this context in mind that we can ex- flection upon the nature of the field, clearly show amine Everyday America: Cultural Landscape Studies the importance of doing so.

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