Advertisement for refrigerators for the home, 1938.
Refrigerators for the home were developed in the 1910s and 1920s, but home freezers were very small or had to be purchased separately. After World War II, many new frozen convenience foods were introduced, but sales were not as expected except for two popular products – frozen orange juice and fish sticks. In the early 1950s, a study discovered the small refrigerators of most homes lacked the freezer space to accommodate numerous frozen foods. Only when people began to move to new homes in the suburbs, with more space for home freezers, did frozen foods and home freezer sales increase.
Image courtesy of Library of Congress
This would be a great source to use in my classroom when teaching about advertisements or propaganda techniques. Current refrigerators ads are very different now , but there are similarities and this would allow students to see how advertisements has changed through the years. The students can look at prices, how they are made, and the strategies used by advertisers. I could also use the advertisements for fake flu cures to demonstrate how everything that is promised is not true.
This photo can help my students see how the different technologies that have been produced throughout history. I can have them guess how food was kept cold before refrigerators.