Snapshots of the Past

Cook in White House kitchen – Historic Print

Cook in White House kitchen, [ca. 1890] — historic photograph
Cook in White House kitchen, [ca. 1890]. Historic photograph from the White House collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare historic photograph captures Cook in White House kitchen in remarkable detail. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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Cook in White House kitchen

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A cook stands at work in the White House kitchen in this photograph, dated around 1890, which gives a rare view of the working side of the executive mansion. It belongs to the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, and Johnston, a Washington photographer, was one of the people who documented the building's rooms and the staff who kept its household running. Kitchens of that era were hot, coal- or wood-fired spaces where meals for the first family and their guests were prepared largely by hand. The catalog indexes the picture under cooks, which underscores its value as a record of domestic labor in the late 1800s.

Created / published[ca. 1890]
Medium1 photographic print.
NotesTitle and other information transcribed from caption card and item. Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection. Caption card tracings: Geogr.; Cooks.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,231 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-155238

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