1910s: Food and Drink

Housework continued to become easier in the 1910s, thanks to the continuing spread of electricity and running water, to the invention of new appliances, and to the availability of pre-prepared food and drink. Vacuum cleaners, invented in 1908, made cleaning easier. Refrigerators, first made for home use in 1913, helped cut down on trips to the grocery store. The electric toaster, invented in 1919, made warming bread a snap. But real modern efficiency had not yet come to the home in the 1910s. Homemakers still had to wash clothes by hand and hang them on a line to dry. The high cost of many appliances made them difficult to afford for most people. For example, a refrigerator in 1920 cost about $600, nearly half of the average person's annual income.

Buying and preparing food certainly became easier in the 1910s, continuing a trend started in the previous decade. Grocery stores grew in size, carrying thousands of items to help make home life easier. Food producers kept inventing new ways to package food, hoping to make money by making cooking quick and easy. Two famous products are good examples of the trend toward efficiency in American food preparation. Campbell's Soups—condensed soups that could be mixed with water to make a meal—became a national brand in 1911. Condensed soups allowed cooks to avoid the long preparation time involved in making homemade soup. By 1920, Americans bought more than one million cans of the twenty-one varieties of soup. Oreo cookies, invented in 1912, soon became America's favorite packaged cookie. Both items were helped along by carefully constructed advertising campaigns. Both remain the leading brands in their category.