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Film, Video Home Canning: Cultural Narratives, Technological Change & the Status of Traditional Knowledge

Event video

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Home Canning: Cultural Narratives, Technological Change & the Status of Traditional Knowledge

Summary

  • Drawing on filmstrips, posters, cartoons, newspaper captions, canning manuals, mail-order catalogs and other sources, Danille Christensen offered examples that explore how technological changes contributed to the dismissal or even demonization of women's experience-based domestic knowledge in the area of home canning. Shelf-stable canned goods -- heat-sterilized fruits, vegetables and meat preserved in sealed containers -- have been part of everyday American life since the mid-19th century. While industrial canning utilized metal tins and mechanized processes, other forms of canning came to rely on glass bottles and the domestic labor of women. But even in the early 1900s, the practice had multiple meanings: for some, home canning was old-fashioned, inefficient or embarrassing. For others, it was a valuable skill to be displayed in public and mobilized in times of need. In today's contexts of economic instability, automated systems, and cultural and environmental change, do-it-yourself canning is experiencing a revival. The process can be a way to recall people and places, to perform authentic or esoteric taste, and to enact abstract values such as stewardship or self-sufficiency. In the 21st century, more people are canning their own food, and more are writing about it. However, the histories of canning that crop up in everything from food magazines to microbiology textbooks have been strikingly similar: they invariably celebrate a single "father of canning" -- a man depicted as a chef and/or scientist motivated by military concerns -- and consistently warn against relying on "grandma's" methods.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • American Folklife Center, sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2016-07-19.

Headings

  • -  Biography, History
  • -  Culture, Performing Arts
  • -  Education
  • -  Science, Technology
  • -  canning, home technology, food, cooking, preservation, domestic science

Notes

  • -  Classification: Agriculture.
  • -  Classification: Education.
  • -  Classification: History: America.
  • -  Danille Christensen.
  • -  Recorded on 2016-07-19.
  • -  Kids, Families.
  • -  Librarians, Archivists.
  • -  Researchers.
  • -  Teachers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021690247

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body American Folklife Center. Home Canning: Cultural Narratives, Technological Change & the Status of Traditional Knowledge. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -07-19, 2016. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021690247/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & American Folklife Center, S. B. (2016) Home Canning: Cultural Narratives, Technological Change & the Status of Traditional Knowledge. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -07-19. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021690247/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body American Folklife Center. Home Canning: Cultural Narratives, Technological Change & the Status of Traditional Knowledge. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -07-19, 2016. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021690247/>.