The History of Kitchen Linens

Bright, beautiful kitchen linens got their start in the Depression, really. That's when even the wealthiest women, who were raised to oversee kitchen help, found themselves, of necessity, in the kitchen by themselves, doing all the cooking and cleaning up because they could no longer afford help. The better-off families had kitchens equipped with a few conveniences—a gas stove and a refrigerator, say—but most women faced an enormous task when it came to food preparation. Everything had to be prepared from scratch; you could buy a loaf of bread ready-made, but little else. Women toiling over a hot sink or stove truly appreciated a bit of cheer in the way of vibrantly colored and fancifully designed dish towels.

And it wasn't just dish towels that took on color and verve during the Depression: Tablecloths, too, got a lot more interesting, as meals became less formal affairs. Dinner might still be served on the white damask in the dining room, but with Mother doing all the cooking and serving, it was inevitable that breakfast and lunch migrated to the kitchen—or more specifically, to a little room or alcove off the kitchen called the breakfast nook. The nook housed a square or gate-legged table that was surrounded by a couple of chairs or built-in benches. Conventional tablecloths would have been way too big for this cozy setup, so the breakfast cloth was invented. —From The Kitchen Linens Book, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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Online:

Author's web site: www.apronmemories.com/index.php

Author's Blog: http://apronmemories.blogspot.com/

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The Kitchen Linens Book: Using, Sharing, and Cherishing the Fabrics of Our Daily Lives

Author: EllynAnne Geisel
ISBN: 978-0-7407-7763-9
Format: Hardcover, jacketed: 7 x 9, 152 pages
Price: $19.99 ($24.50 Canada)

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Contact: Tammie Barker | (800) 851-8923, ext. 7499 | tbarker@amuniversal.com