In 1984, President Ronald Reagan named July National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday in July National Ice Cream Day—so Happy National Ice Cream Day 2017 to all of you. No need to tell you that ice cream has been a beloved treat for a very long time as evidenced by the Library of Congress Archive images below. You will notice one image of an airplane promoting a National Ice Cream Day on May 27, 1920. I’m not sure what that was all about; perhaps an effort to establish such a day back then given prohibition started on January 17, 1920, and America’s prohibition-fueled consumption of sweets and ice cream was already on a rapid rise.
When you tuck into your favorite flavor(s) today, may these ice cream-themed images of yesteryear dance in your head. Bon appétite!
Currier & Ives. The Cream of Love. , ca. 1879. New York: Published by Currier & Ives. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/91723709/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. [Where the newsboy’s money goes. Investigator, Edward F. Brown.Location: Wilmington, Delaware / Photo by Louis i.e. Lewis W. Hine, May, 1910]. Delaware Wilmington, 1910. May. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ncl2004002274/PP/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
The Ice Cream Girl. , ca. 1913. Aug. 11. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2003688432/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
Detroit Publishing Co., Publisher. On the beach at Atlantic City, N.J. Atlantic City New Jersey, None. [Between 1900 and 1906] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/det1994006562/PP/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
Bain News Service, Publisher. Eileen Sedgwick — Marion Tiffany. , 1917. [June] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2005024649/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. Sanitary Ice Cream Cone Co., 116 S. Dewey St. Cisar, Manager. John Myers, 14 years old, who is in Grade 6 in Franklin School works after school and Saturday. He has been there 7 months. Can bake cones as well as pack them. For a month in the Fall, after school started, he went to school and worked from 4 p.m. to midnight. Expects to do it again soon. Gets $4 a week for part time and $8 a week when working 8 hours a day.Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma / Lewis W. Hine. Oklahoma City, 1917. April 3. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ncl2004004861/PP/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
Reid Ice Cream Co. truck, probably in Washington, D.C. , 1918. [?] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2001706376/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
[Betty Compson, half length portrait, standing, with umbrella, in bathing suit, facing slightly right, eating Eskimo Pie. Movie star]. , ca. 1922. Dec. 26. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2005691986/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
Thos. R. Shipp Aeroplane. , 1920. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/npc2007001691/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
[Group of Farm Women Holding Plates of Cake and Ice Cream and Spooning Homemade Ice Cream Out of Freezers]. , None. [Between 1935 and 1930] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2006690311/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
Mrs. Herbert Hoover feeds ice cream to a small black bear cub, Seward, Alaska. Alaska Seward, ca. 1926. Meadville, Pa.: Keystone View Company, manufacturers, publishers. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/91481774/. (Accessed July 23, 2017.)
Chicago Sunday Tribune, May 23, 1920 [Though the third Sunday in July was declared National Ice Cream Day by President Ronald Reagan, here is evidence of an attempt to establish a national day back in 1920. Perhaps this was the result of the prohibition-fueled, astronomic rise in ice cream consumption. (Prohibition – 1920-1933)]
