Smithsonian Affiliate Special Event: Kitchen Contradictions: Food and Cooking in 1960s America

Unfortunately, this program has been canceled. 

Paula Johnson, curator of food history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, will take us back to the 1960s to explore the clash of new ideas about food and cooking that influenced major changes in Americans’ eating habits. Drawing from the Smithsonian museum’s exhibition, “FOOD: Transforming the American Table,” the presentation will range from Julia Child’s introduction of French cuisine for American home cooks to the rise of convenience foods branded and marketed to an enthusiastic public. Johnson will discuss the impacts of these different approaches to cooking and eating in America and will provide a sneak peek into how the NMAH is updating its food history exhibition in 2019.

This program is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend, kindly email rsvp@chs.org or call 860-236-5621 ext. 238; this helps us better serve our patrons!

Questions? Contact Natalie Belanger, Adult Programs Manager, at natalie_belanger@chs.org.

About the Speaker

Paula J. Johnson is the Curator of Food History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. She conducts research, collects objects and documents relating to American food history, and has curated many exhibitions, including “Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian” (2002), “On the Water: Stories from Maritime America” (2009), and “FOOD: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000” (2012). She is the author/editor of Working the Water (The University Press of Virginia, 1988) and The Workboats of Smith Island (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997). She has written and edited numerous exhibition scripts, articles, blogposts, and program notes for the museum’s food history programs and events, including its annual Food History Weekend.

The CMCH is proud to be a Smithsonian Affiliate.