Midwestern Newspaper Food Editors: Ruth Ellen Church, Clarice Rowlands & Peggy Daum

Presented by
Kimberly Wilmot Voss, PhD
American Midwest Foodways Scholar’s Grant recipient, 2013

This talk is the story of three significant Midwestern food editors from the 1950s and 1960s. Ruth Ellen Church joined the Chicago Tribune as cooking editor in 1936 and oversaw one of the first test kitchens at a newspaper. She published many cookbooks—several under the pen name of Mary Meade. She remained the food editor until 1974 and became the nation’s first newspaper wine editor in 1962. Clarice Rowlands joined the Milwaukee Journal as food editor in 1943 based on an interest she developed as a member of the 4-H Club in high school. She occasionally wrote under the pen name Alice Richards. Peggy Daum began working in the women’s pages in the 1950s and was the food editor at the Milwaukee Journal from 1968 to 1988. She initiated the creation of what is now known as the Association of Food Journalists and was its first president. These women documented what home cooks were making and what was served in fine restaurants. They judged cooking contests and oversaw recipe exchange programs. They also had a lot of fun.

Kimberly Wilmot Voss, PhD, is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She is the author of The Food Section: Newspaper Women & the Culinary Community (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014) and a co-author of Mad Men & Working Women (Peter Lang, 2014). She writes the Vintage Cocktail column for Okra, the magazine of the Southern Food & Wine Museum. She recently spoke at the Roger Smith Food + Tech conference in New York City. She is the executive editor of Nitty Grits, the international culinary dictionary. She blogs at WomensPageHistory. She is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Saturday, May 17th, 2014 at 10 AM
Kendall College, School of Culinary Arts
900 N. North Branch Street, Chicago
(West of Halsted Street, North of Chicago Avenue)
Free Parking in the student lot across the street, not in front, please!
Cost: $3. Free to Kendall students and faculty with ID.

This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable. To reserve, please e-mail: chicago.foodways.roundtable@gmail.com