A Victory Garden in a Milwaukee neighborhood, 1918Broccoli maybe? Whatever it is, it looks like a healthy crop. via: Historic Photo Collection, Milwaukee Public Library Erika Janik, writer, historian, and the producer and editor of Wisconsin Life on Wisconsin Public Radio, is our guest curator throughout the month of May. This week, Erika examined the history of Victory Gardens and other food conservation efforts during World War I. Next week, she’ll highlight milk, cheese, ice cream and other Wisconsin dairy delights.
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A Victory Garden in a Milwaukee neighborhood, 1918
Broccoli maybe? Whatever it is, it looks like a healthy crop.

via: Historic Photo Collection, Milwaukee Public Library

Erika Janik, writer, historian, and the producer and editor of Wisconsin Life on Wisconsin Public Radio, is our guest curator throughout the month of May. This week, Erika examined the history of Victory Gardens and other food conservation efforts during World War I. Next week, she’ll highlight milk, cheese, ice cream and other Wisconsin dairy delights.

Source: content.mpl.org

Poster for food conservation class presented by Gladys Stillman, 1918Food conservation classes were offered all over Wisconsin to help citizens deal with recommended food rationing. This poster advertises a class geared specifically at women, the main food providers and preparers, to teach them how to bake and can without sugar and wheat. via: School of Human Ecology: A Centennial Celebration, UW-Madison Archives by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
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Poster for food conservation class presented by Gladys Stillman, 1918
Food conservation classes were offered all over Wisconsin to help citizens deal with recommended food rationing. This poster advertises a class geared specifically at women, the main food providers and preparers, to teach them how to bake and can without sugar and wheat.

via: School of Human Ecology: A Centennial Celebration, UW-Madison Archives by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

Source: digital.library.wisc.edu

Women Students’ War Work Council, “War Time Recipes,” 1917Wisconsin citizens pioneered many food conservation programs that became national models during World War I, including the introduction of meatless and wheatless days. Wheat, beef, pork, dairy products, and sugar were rationed in order to provide highly nutritive food to the military fighting overseas. Americans were urged to eat more vegetables and fruits because they did not transport well. To help Americans adjust to the changes, the Women Students’ War Work Council, together with the University of Wisconsin’s Home Economics Department, produced this booklet of recipes using alternative ingredients to show how everyone could do their part to support the troops. Some sound a little… questionable. Steamed barley pudding anyone? How about salmon box? via: Turning Points in Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society
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Women Students’ War Work Council, “War Time Recipes,” 1917
Wisconsin citizens pioneered many food conservation programs that became national models during World War I, including the introduction of meatless and wheatless days. Wheat, beef, pork, dairy products, and sugar were rationed in order to provide highly nutritive food to the military fighting overseas. Americans were urged to eat more vegetables and fruits because they did not transport well.

To help Americans adjust to the changes, the Women Students’ War Work Council, together with the University of Wisconsin’s Home Economics Department, produced this booklet of recipes using alternative ingredients to show how everyone could do their part to support the troops. Some sound a little… questionable. Steamed barley pudding anyone? How about salmon box?

via: Turning Points in Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society

Source: content.wisconsinhistory.org

A large Victory Garden in Milwaukee in 1918. In many parts of Wisconsin, County Extension Agents advised and supervised gardening efforts. They also taught and organized classes on food preservation to help people make the most of their harvests. Read more about food conservation in World War I Wisconsin in “Food Will Win the War” from the Wisconsin Magazine of History. via: Historic Photo Collection, Milwaukee Public Library
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A large Victory Garden in Milwaukee in 1918. In many parts of Wisconsin, County Extension Agents advised and supervised gardening efforts. They also taught and organized classes on food preservation to help people make the most of their harvests.

Read more about food conservation in World War I Wisconsin in “Food Will Win the War” from the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

via: Historic Photo Collection, Milwaukee Public Library

Source: content.mpl.org

Victory Gardens Feed the Hungry, 1919Victory Gardens first appeared during World War I. As the war turned farm fields into battlefields in Europe, a food shortage ensued. The Allies turned to the United States and Canada for food. Wheat, meat, and sugar were among the foods rationed by Americans to feed the troops. The U.S. government, concerned with how the food shortages might affect the home front, began a campaign to encourage citizens to grow their own food. These gardens struck a patriotic chord with Americans who continued to garden after the war when food was needed to help Europe rebuild. Charles Lathrop Pack, President of the National War Garden Commission, produced this booklet to urge Americans to keep gardening as a way to support the peace process. via: Turning Points in Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society This week, guest curator Erika Janik considers the significance of food during wartime, including government-sponsored rationing and conservation programs.
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Victory Gardens Feed the Hungry, 1919
Victory Gardens first appeared during World War I. As the war turned farm fields into battlefields in Europe, a food shortage ensued. The Allies turned to the United States and Canada for food. Wheat, meat, and sugar were among the foods rationed by Americans to feed the troops.

The U.S. government, concerned with how the food shortages might affect the home front, began a campaign to encourage citizens to grow their own food. These gardens struck a patriotic chord with Americans who continued to garden after the war when food was needed to help Europe rebuild. Charles Lathrop Pack, President of the National War Garden Commission, produced this booklet to urge Americans to keep gardening as a way to support the peace process.

via: Turning Points in Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society

This week, guest curator Erika Janik considers the significance of food during wartime, including government-sponsored rationing and conservation programs.

Source: content.wisconsinhistory.org

Major Charles M. Winter and Ed Winter in northeast China, 1919. Charles Winter of Stone Lake, Wisconsin (at left) and his son Ed (at right) served in the 339th Infantry in northern Russia over the winter of 1918-1919. The 339th, nicknamed the “Polar Bears” and “Detroit’s Own” (due to the large number of Michiganders serving in the division), were ostensibly in Russia to help prevent a German advance. However,  they remained there for several months after the official end of World War I, fighting Bolshevik revolutionaries in what author John Evangelist Walsh calls “one of the most fumbling foreign policy actions in our history.” The Winters traveled through China after what came to be known as the Polar Bear Expedition. Glass negatives from the Stone Lake Area Historical Society show father and son posing in front of landmarks in Beijing and in rural northeastern China. After returning to Wisconsin, Charles Winter developed a fishing camp on Big Sissabagama Lake in Sawyer County. via: Stone Lake Area Historical Society read more: John Evangelist Walsh, “The strange, sad death of Sergeant Kenney: a personal history of heroism and loss during America’s Russian intervention of 1918-19,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 85:2 (2001-2001); Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
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Major Charles M. Winter and Ed Winter in northeast China, 1919.

Charles Winter of Stone Lake, Wisconsin (at left) and his son Ed (at right) served in the 339th Infantry in northern Russia over the winter of 1918-1919. The 339th, nicknamed the “Polar Bears” and “Detroit’s Own” (due to the large number of Michiganders serving in the division), were ostensibly in Russia to help prevent a German advance. However,  they remained there for several months after the official end of World War I, fighting Bolshevik revolutionaries in what author John Evangelist Walsh calls “one of the most fumbling foreign policy actions in our history.”

The Winters traveled through China after what came to be known as the Polar Bear Expedition. Glass negatives from the Stone Lake Area Historical Society show father and son posing in front of landmarks in Beijing and in rural northeastern China. After returning to Wisconsin, Charles Winter developed a fishing camp on Big Sissabagama Lake in Sawyer County.

via: Stone Lake Area Historical Society

read more: John Evangelist Walsh, “The strange, sad death of Sergeant Kenney: a personal history of heroism and loss during America’s Russian intervention of 1918-19,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 85:2 (2001-2001); Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

Portrait of Joseph Gussert, 1918 Joseph Gussert of Wrightstown, Wisconsin was drafted into the US Army during World War I. For this portrait photograph, a studio photographer posed him in front of a painted backdrop depicting a tank and an American flag.  via: Brown County War History Committee by way of Neville Public Museum of Brown County
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Portrait of Joseph Gussert, 1918

Joseph Gussert of Wrightstown, Wisconsin was drafted into the US Army during World War I. For this portrait photograph, a studio photographer posed him in front of a painted backdrop depicting a tank and an American flag. 

via: Brown County War History Committee by way of Neville Public Museum of Brown County

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