2 By Custom
This chapter concerns the origins of why we do what we do, and its content derives in large part from studies in folklore, cultural anthropology, and etymology, for the original meaning of a word (such as “honeymoon”) often says much about the tradition surrounding the practice it describes. I am indebted to Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, folklorist and chair-person of Performing Arts at New York University, for her many helpful references.
Through the influence of tradition we perform many actions so habitually that their origins and original significance are seldom, if ever, questioned. Dr. R. Brasch, a rabbinical scholar, insightfully investigates numerous human customs, from marriage practices to death traditions, in How Did It Begin, 1976, David McKay. His book, unfortunately out of print, is well worth a visit to a local library. Rabbi Brasch’s linguistics background—he is a student of twelve languages, among them Babylonic-Assyrian, Arabic, Syriac, and Persian—provides a firm foundation for many subjects explored in this chapter.
A comprehensive book to browse, from which I gleaned many facts and verified others, is Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, edited by Maria Leach and Jerome Fried, 1980.
For birthday practices: The Lore of Birthdays, Ralph and Adeline Linton, 1952, Henry Schuman. For a fascinating history of the song “Happy Birthday to You” and the legal dispute surrounding its authorship and subsequent royalty rights, see New York Times, “Dr. Patty S. Hill of Columbia University Dies,” May 26, 1946; and Louisville (Kentucky) Courier, “Their Song Becomes a Universal One,” Rhea Talley, February 15, 1948. For a capsule overview of the song, see The Book of World-Famous Music, James Fuld, 3rd edition, 1985, Dover.
Additional information on the origins of birthday practices was obtained through personal communications with the research staff at Hallmark Cards.
Two highly readable books on a wide variety of human customs are: Why You Say It, Webb B. Garrison, 1953, Abingdon Press; and Why We Do It, Edwin Daniel Wolfe, Books for Libraries Press, a 1968 reprint of the 1929 original. An excellent overview of the origins of customs throughout the world is Curiosities of Popular Customs, William S. Walsh, 1966, Gale.
For marriage customs: Here I recommend that the interested reader borrow from something old—The Customs of Mankind, Lillian Eichler Watson, Greenwood Press, a 1970 reprint of the 1925 original; and something new—The Bride, by Barbara Tober, 1984, Abrams. Christian aspects of wedding practices are expertly presented by theologian John C. McCollister in The Christian Book of Why, 1983, Jonathan David Publishers. The volume, written in a question-and-answer format, provides concise explanations of how and why various customs arose in ancient times and persist into the present. In addition to marriage customs, McCollister, a university professor and Lutheran minister, examines the origins of sacred artifacts, modes of prayer and worship, and festivals and dietary laws.
A particularly thorough book on the customs of wearing and exchanging rings is Rings Through the Ages, James R. McCarthy, 1945, Harper & Brothers.
On regional New England practices: Customs and Fashions in Old New England, Alice Morse Earle, 1893, Scribner, reprinted by Charles E. Tuttle, 1973.
On Old World practices: Peasant Customs and Savage Myths from British Folklorists, Richard Dorson, 1968, Chicago University Press, 2 volumes.
3 On the Calendar
Several excellent books exist that are devoted entirely to the origins of holidays. The three that I found most comprehensive, readable, and scholarly in the presentation of material are: The American Book of Days, George W. Douglas, revised by Jane M. Hatch and Helen D. Compton, 1978, H. W. Wilson Company. All About American Holidays, Maymie Krythe, 1962, Harper & Brothers. Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays, by Robert J. Myer with the editors of Hallmark Cards, 1972, Doubleday. I am also indebted to the research staff at Hallmark Cards, Kansas City, Missouri, for a considerable amount of material on the origins of holidays, holiday foods and customs, as well as for figures on the numbers of greeting cards sold on major and minor observances.
Several holidays deserve particular note.
Mother’s Day: The committee of the International Mother’s Day Shrine in West Virginia was generous in providing material on Miss Anna Jarvis, the founder of the holiday. Additional information on Mother’s Day observances came from Public Broadcasting Television, Morgantown, West Virginia; and from WBOY-TV, Clarksburg, West Virginia. The National Restaurant Association provided figures on the number of families that eat out on various national holidays. Howard Wolfe, in Mother’s Day and the Mother’s Day Church, 1962, Kingsport Press, provided further insight into the life and ambitions of Anna Jarvis.
Thanksgiving: The best single source I located on the origins of this national holiday is Thanksgiving: An American History, by Diana K. Applebaum, 1984, Facts on File. Also helpful was The Mayflower, by Vernon Heaton, 1980, Mayflower Books.
Easter: While the first three books in this section give a rather comprehensive account of Easter and its traditions, a volume devoted entirely to the holy day is The Easter Book, Francis X. Weiser, 1954, Harcourt Brace. Additional Easter lore was provided by the PASS Dye Company of Newark, N.J., founded in the 1870s and one of the first commercial ventures to market prepackaged powdered Easter egg dyes.
The history and significance of eggs in early times, particularly among the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, is detailed in Easter Eggs, Victor Houart, 1982, Stephen Green Press. An overview of the feast from pagan holiday to Christian holy day is contained in Easter and Its Customs, Christina Hole, 1961, M. Barrows Company.
Groundhog Day: An excellent article separating fact from fiction and locating the origin of this observance is “A Groundhog’s Day Means More to Us Than It Does to Him,” Bil Gilbert, Smithsonian, May 1985.
Bibliographic material on saints Patrick, Valentine, and Nicholas (the original Santa) is derived from The Oxford Dictionary of Popes and The Avenel Dictionary of Saints, op. cit.
Christmas: Christmas customs are numerous, diverse, and international and have been culled from many sources, including several of the above. In addition, the origin of the song “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was provided by the Montgomery Ward department store chain, for which the lyrics were written in 1939.
Three sources deal with Christmas in America: The American Christmas, James H. Barnett, 1954, Macmillan; Christmas on the American Frontier, 1800–1900, John E. Baur, 1961, The Caxton Printers; and to a lesser extent, A Treasury of American Folklore, B. A. Botkin, editor, 1944, Crown. These references indicate the religious resistance among early colonists to the festive observance of Christ’s birthday.
Also helpful in creating the section on Christmas customs were the excellent overviews presented in Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance, Clement A. Miles, 1976, Dover; and 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies, Alfred C. Hattes, 1954, A. T. De La Mare. An international view of the holiday is found in Christmas Customs Around the World, Herbert Wernecke, 1979, Westminster Press.
A fine reference on the calendar and the origin of the week is The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviatar Zerubavel, 1985, The Free Press.
A highly readable and comprehensive book on holidays and customs, out of general circulation but still available in limited number from the publisher, is Days and Customs of All Faiths, by Howard Harper, 1957, Fleet Publications.
4 At the Table
This chapter opens with a discussion of the origins of etiquette, then proceeds to explore the evolution of eating with a knife, fork, and spoon, as well as such practices as blowing the nose. The classic, pioneering work that examines the links between such social graces and behavioral control is The History of Manners: The Civilizing Process, Volume 1, by Swiss sociologist Norbert Elias, translated by Edmund Jephcott and published by Pantheon, 1978 (a reprint of the 1939 original). Elias draws from a dazzling array of sources, including med
ieval etiquette and manners books, eighteenth-century novels, travel accounts, song lyrics, and paintings. Many of the quotations in this chapter I borrow from Elias.
A more readable, though not less scholarly, account of table manners is The Best of Behavior: The Course of Good Manners from Antiquity to the Present as Seen Through Courtesy and Etiquette Books, by Esther B. Aresty, 1970, Simon and Schuster. Both books are enjoyable, amusing, and highly recommended.
The opening remarks in this chapter on the decline in table manners in all segments of modern society are based on “Table Manners: A Casualty of the Changing Times,” William R. Greer, New York Times, October 16, 1985.
The early seminal books, by century, on which the information in this chapter is based are:
c. 2500 B.C., Egypt, The Instructions of Ptahhotep
c. 950 B.C., the writings of King Solomon and King David
c. 1000, Hebrew Household Books, the first writings on manners to appear in Western Europe
c. 1430, Italy, How a Good Wife Teaches Her Daughter and How a Wise Man Teaches His Son
Sources on specific manners include:
On nose blowing: The following three accounts treat the practice and detail acceptable standards of the day, and the last two shed light on the development and use of handkerchiefs (a topic covered in depth in Chapter 12): Fifty Table Courtesies, Bonvieino da Riva, 1290; On civility in children, Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1530; “On the Nose, and The Manner of Blowing the Nose and Sneezing,” The Venerable Father La Salle, 1729.
On dining manners: Fifty Table Courtesies and On civility in children, op. cit.
On the use of cutlery (revealing the gradual acceptance of the fork): “On Things to Be Used at Table,” The Venerable Father La Salle, 1729.
A history of the knife, fork, and spoon appears in Setting Your Table, by Helen Sprackling, 1960, Morrow; as well as in The Story of Cutlery, by J. B. Himsworth, 1953, Ernest Benn.
Concerning the section “Table Talk”: Why You Say It, Webb B. Garrison, and Why We do It, Edwin Daniel Wolfe, op. cit. I have also consulted Thereby Hangs a Tale: Stories of Curious Word Origins, Charles Earle Funk, 1950, Harper & Row, Harper Colophon Edition, 1985. An excellent book that includes the origins of cutlery names and dinnerware is Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories, Wilfred Funk, 1978, Crown.
A reference for Wedgwood Ware is Entrepreneurs: The Men and Women Behind Famous Brand Names and How They Made It, by Joseph and Suzy Fucini, 1985, G. K. Hall. The book, whose title is self-explanatory, provides fascinating reading on scores of individuals and the products they created, with information presented in concise, encapsulated form. I employed this reference to double check facts and flesh out information on several topics, including Culligan Water Softeners (Chapter 5), and Carrier Air Conditioners and Burpee Seeds (Chapter 6).
5 Around the Kitchen
In this and the following chapter, which deal with everyday inventions and gadgets found in the kitchen and throughout the home, I am indebted to the research staff at the Division of Patents and Trademarks of the U.S. Department of Commerce; to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, in Arlington, Virginia; and to individual companies that provided historical information on their products. Before providing specific references by product, I would direct the interested reader to four excellent general works, covering a wide variety of inventors, gadgets, and corporations.
The Fifty Great Pioneers of American Industry, Editors of Newsfront Year, 1964, Maplewood Press. Eureka! The History of Invention, edited by De Bono, 1974, Holt, Rinehart & Winston. The Great Merchants: America’s Foremost Retail Institutions and the People Who Made Them Great, Thomas Mahoney and Leonard Sloane, 1955, Harper & Brothers. Pioneers of American Business, Sterling G. Slappey, 1970, Grossett.
On the origin and use of Teflon: Personal communications with the National Inventors Hall of Fame for material on Teflon’s inventor, Dr. Roy J. Plunkett. A detailed description of Teflon’s development is in “Polytetra-fluoroethylene,” W. E. Hanford and R. M. Joyce, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Volume 68, 1946. Dr. Plunkett’s own description of his discovery appears in The Flash of Genius, Alfred B. Garrett, 1963, Van Nostrand. I also wish to thank the Du Pont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, for material on Dr. Plunkett and Teflon.
On the microwave oven: Personal communications with the Raytheon Company, Microwave and Power Tube Division, Waltham, Massachusetts. Two excellent accounts of the development of microwave cooking, one an article, the other a book, appear in “The Development of the Microwave Oven,” Charles W. Behrens, Appliance Manufacturers, November 1976; and The Creative Ordeal: The Story of Raytheon, Otto J. Scott, 1974, Atheneum. A recent account of the pioneering efforts that led to the discovery of microwave radiation for cooking is in Breakthroughs! by P. Nayak and J. Kettringham, 1986, Rawson, Chapter 8.
On the paper bag: Personal communications with the Kraft and Packaging Papers Division of the American Paper Institute, as well as with the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
On the history and evolution of the friction match: Eureka!, op. cit. And material provided by the Diamond Match Company of Springfield, Massachusetts.
An invaluable book in assembling the material in this chapter and Chapter 6 was The Housewares Story, by Earl Lifshey, 1973, published by the National Housewares Manufacturers Association, Chicago. This fascinating volume details the early marketing of numerous household products (e.g., orange juicers, bathroom scales, kitchen stools) that for reasons of space I was unable to include. A highly recommended work.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame also provided information on Leo H. Baekeland and Bakelite; Charles Goodyear and rubber; Charles Martin Hall and his 1885 discovery of the electrolytic method of producing inexpensive aluminum, which eventually brought the metal into wide use; and Samuel F. B. Morse. Additional information on the choice of the distress signal SOS is from the International Maritime Organization, and from “Mayday for Morse Code,” Science, March 1986.
On plastics discussed in this chapter and Tupperware: Eureka! op. cit., and Plastics: Common Objects, Classic Designs, by Sylvia Katz, 1984, Abrams. Ms. Katz covers the history of the plastics industry, beginning in the 1840s, and detailing the material’s uses in decorative objects, combs, furniture, and toys. Another lively history of the subject is Art Plastic: Designed for Living, by Andrea DiNoto, 1984, Abbeville Press. Her text is geared toward readers with little knowledge of the scientific techniques involved in the manufacture of plastic. Material on the “miracle” plastic, nylon, is from personal communications with the Du Pont Company, and from Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain, by Gerard Colby, 1984, Lyle Stuart.
On blenders and food processors: Communications with Mrs. Fred Waring helped clarify many conflicting accounts of her husband’s involvement in the development of the Waring Blendor. Also of assistance in assembling this material was information from Oster and Hamilton Beach, and from Topsellers, by Molly Wade McGrath, 1983, Morrow. I am indebted to Dave Stivers, archivist of Nabisco for directing me to Ms. McGrath’s book and for generously providing me with more material on products than I could possibly use in this volume. Also, New Processor Cooking, by Jean Anderson, 1983, Morrow.
On Pyrex: Material provided by Corning Glass Works, Corning, New York. (Also see references in Chapter 6 under “Glass Window.”)
On disposable paper cups: In addition to abovementioned general references on inventions, Why Did They Name It? by Hannah Campbell, 1964, Fleet Press. This is a gem of a book, highly recommended, and still available in limited number from the publisher in New York. Ms. Campbell provides entertaining histories of the brand names that have become an integral part of the American home. The book began as a series of articles published in Cosmopolitan magazine in the 1960s.
One final and excellent source covering a variety of gadgets found in the kitchen, bathroom, and around the home: The Practical Inventor’s Handbook, Orville Green and Frank Durr, 1979, McGraw-Hill.
6 In and
Around the House
A delightful, informative book on the history and comforts of the home in Western culture is Home: A Short History of an Idea, by Witold Rybczynski, 1986, Viking. The book considers the home before the advent of electrical gadgets, after such convenience devices were introduced and proudly displayed as prestige acquisitions, then in modern times, when the decorating vogue has been a nostalgia for past simplicity in which “The mechanical paraphernalia of contemporary living has been put away, and replaced by brass-covered gun boxes, silver bed-side water carafes, and leather-bound books.”
As pertains to this chapter, Mr. Rybczynski paints a picture of home comfort and what it has meant in different times. He writes, “In the seventeenth century, comfort meant privacy, which lead to intimacy and, in turn, to domesticity. The eighteenth century shifted the emphasis to leisure and ease, the nineteenth to mechanically aided comforts—light, heat, and ventilation. The twentieth-century domestic engineers stressed efficiency and convenience.” This general discussion has been fleshed out in detail, invention by invention, through a number of sources listed below.
On lighting the home, from oil lamps in prehistoric times to fluorescent tubes, I found the most detailed single volume to be The Social History of Lighting, by William T. O’Dea, 1958, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
On types of glass and glass windows: “A History of Glassmaking,” John Harris, New Scientist, May 22, 1986. This Is Glass, generously provided by the Corning Glass Works of Corning, New York, and published by the company. Also, Glass Engineering Handbook, E. B. Shand, 1980, McGraw-Hill. And “Safety Glass: Its History, Manufacturer, Testing, and Development,” J. Wilson, Journal of the Society of Glass Technology, Volume 16, 1932.
Once again, an indispensable book on home convenience inventions is The Housewares Story, op. cit. Capsule descriptions of home inventions and inventors are found in the voluminous and entertaining The Ethnic Almanac, Stephanie Bernardo, 1981, Doubleday; a book that provides hours of fascinating browsing.
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