On July 23, 1904, according to some accounts, Charles E. Menches conceived the idea of filling a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream and thereby invented the ice cream cone. He is one of several claimants to that honor: Ernest Hamwi, Abe Doumar, Albert and Nick Kabbaz, Arnold Fornachou, and David Avayou all have been touted as the inventor(s) of the first edible cone. Interestingly, these individuals have in common the fact that they all made or sold confections at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the St. Louis World’s Fair. It is from the time of the Fair that the edible “cornucopia,” a cone made from a rolled waffle, vaulted into popularity in the United States.

I give Bette the church money for the family, but I do my own charity work myself, so I can see where my money goes. I like to send the ragged little boys who hang around the shop to the movies occasionally, and give them money for ice cream cones to cool them off in summer.

[Growing Up with the Automobile]. Marion Jennings, interviewee; Rose D. Workman, interviewer. Charleston, South Carolina, February 10, 1939. American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1940. Manuscript Division

Another claimant, Italo Marchiony, actually received a patent in 1903 for a device to make edible cups with handles. However the patent drawings show the device as a molded container rather than the rolled waffle seen at the Fair. Although paper and metal cones were used by Europeans to hold ice cream and pita bread was used by Middle Easterners to hold sweets, the ice cream cone seems to have come to America by way of “the Pike”External (as the entertainment midway of the St. Louis World’s Fair was called).

The origins of ice cream have been traced back as far as the second century B.C., although a specific date and inventor have not been indisputably credited. Noted figures known to have enjoyed the frozen treat include Alexander the Great (356 BCE-323 BCE), who is said to have eaten snow and ice flavored with honey and nectar, as well as Roman emperor Nero Claudius Caesar (37 AD-68 AD), who supposedly sent runners into the mountains for snow which was then flavored with fruits and juices. Although legend has it that Marco Polo brought back to Europe a Chinese method for creating an ice and milk concoction, recent scholarship indicates that if he did bring back such a recipe, it was probably not from China but from elsewhere along his route. Over time, recipes for ices, sherbets, and milk ices evolved and were served in the fashionable Italian and French royal courts. After the dessert made its appearance in the United States, it was served by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Dolley Madison. It also was set out for guests at the inauguration of Andrew Jackson.

The use of ice mixed with salt to lower and control the temperature of the mix of ingredients proved a major breakthrough in the creation of ice cream as we know it. The invention of the wooden bucket freezer with rotary paddles facilitated its manufacture at home, making ice cream a staple of kitchens across the land.

A Baltimore company first produced and marketed wholesale ice cream in 1851. The treat became both distributable and profitable with the introduction of mechanical refrigeration. The ice cream shop or soda fountain has since become an icon of American culture.

Dud Leaves Home

The Origins of American Animation documents the development of early American animation. The collection includes twenty-one animated films and two fragments which span the years 1900 to 1921. The films feature clay, puppet, and cut-out animation, as well as pen drawings.

Indulge your taste for the heavenly cream with the Library’s Digital Collections.

Roman Catholic Cardinal James Gibbons, champion of labor and advocate of the separation of church and state, was born to Irish immigrants in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 23, 1834. Not long after his birth, Gibbons’ ailing father moved the family back to Ireland at his doctor’s suggestion. After his father’s death in 1847, Gibbons’ mother decided to move her family back to the United States. On their harrowing journey, their boat was shipwrecked in the Bahamas, but the family eventually reached its destination of New Orleans in 1853.

In 1857, Gibbons entered St. Mary’s Seminary, the oldest seminary in the United States, to study for the priesthood. (St. Mary’s was founded in 1791 by the Sulpicians, a community of diocesan priests that originated in France in 1641; its sole mission is to educate fellow priests.) He was ordained in Maryland in 1861. During the Civil War he served as a volunteer chaplain at Fort McHenry and Fort Marshall. He next spent nine years as a missionary in the South where he interacted with many different types of people. These formative experiences led to his famous exposition of Catholic doctrine, Faith of Our Fathers.

Gibbons was esteemed within the Catholic Church and was appointed to positions of increasing importance. He became vicar apostolic of North Carolina at the age of thirty-two and bishop of Richmond in 1872. In 1877 he was appointed coadjutor to the archbishop of Baltimore and titular archbishop of Ionopolis (Janopolis). Five months later, following the death of the archbishop of Baltimore, Gibbons became the head of the oldest archdiocese in America.

On June 30, 1886, Pope Leo XIII named Archbishop Gibbons the second American cardinal. (The first American cardinal, Archbishop John McCloskey, was named by Pope Pius IX in 1875.) Gibbons became the first chancellor of the Catholic University of AmericaExternal in 1889.

An ardent proponent of American civic institutions, Cardinal Gibbons frequently lauded democracy, calling the U.S. Constitution the finest instrument of government ever created. In his communications with church leaders in Rome, he and “the Americanizers” championed the benefits of the separation of church and state. After the Canadian branch of the Knights of Labor was declared incompatible with the Roman Catholic faith, Gibbons convinced the pope to support the laborers.

Gibbons was known to several presidents. He was a frequent visitor to the Cleveland White House. President William Taft honored Gibbons for his contributions at his 1911 golden jubilee celebration of his ordination as a priest. In 1917, President Theodore Roosevelt hailed Gibbons as the most venerated, respected, and useful citizen in America.