George Washington, the father of America, loved ice cream and had his own machine for making the delightful treat. First Lady Dolley Madison always served pink ice cream at her dinner parties before becoming a pioneer of "ice cream history" by accidentally discovering frozen custard. The presence ice cream, or cream ice as it was originally named, is common throughout American history. Known to be in North America since the 1700s, ice cream was a delicacy among wealthy individuals and politicians, who were the only ones who could afford it. (Visser,p.300-301) Creating cold and ice, before household freezers, was extremely difficult and expensive to do.

Being that people before the mid-twentieth century did not regularly have the capability to create a cold enough environment for storing the dessert, ice cream was not a common item. However, the ice cream trend soon caught on across America after American, Nancy Johnson invented a machine for making ice cream quickly and simply in 1846. (Visser, p.301-302) From then on, this treat was available to everyone who could obtain ice, sugar, cream and salt.

As a major part of American culture and as common as ice cream was, it could not be found in a household refrigerator during the first half of the twentieth century. In Greenbelt, MD, for example, the freezers in the refrigerators could not hold anything larger than two ice cube trays stacked on top of one another. Where did people get their ice cream from? What companies were first to manufacture the delightful treat? How was ice cream originally eaten? In a bowl? On a cone? On a stick? ...

History of Ice Creamcontinued... "Making and Selling Ice Cream"

Ice Cream in Greenbelt, MD "An Interview with a resident of Greenbelt, MD during the 1940s"

References