By the late nineteenth century, perceptions of vegetarianism and its adherents shifted significantly in the United States. Once derided by popular culture as weak and philosophically-flawed, by the end of the century the diet was associated with strength and personal success. This shift in perception even applied to cultural perceptions of the older generation of vegetarians, once decried as apocryphal and dangerous, marketed in the Gilded Age as health luminaries that were ahead of their time.
The Graham Cracker—the now iconic biscuit that has become an integral part of the most American of desserts, the s’more—was originally marketed as a healthy digestive by a variety of small scale biscuit companies by 1890. However, by 1898, the National Biscuit Company began selling Graham Crackers via mail order and in stores throughout the United States. The company marketed its Graham Crackers as a healthy, high quality product that was free of impurities and produced with the utmost care. The new, modern cracker had little to do with Sylvester Graham’s original, pure whole wheat bread developed in 1837 to produce both personal and social reform. However, the modern Graham Cracker was marketed as being originally conceived of by Sylvester Graham, only to have been improved upon by science and modernity. The modern Graham Cracker, in fact, was filled with sugar, a quality that would have made the product abhorrent to Graham with his denunciations of stimulants and overly flavored foods. This paper will analyze the marketing of the Graham Cracker in the late nineteenth century as a means to understand new perceptions of dietary reform in a modern, consumptive society. Additionally, the presentation will explore the role of marketing in influencing both collective memory and culinary culture.
About the presenterAdam Shprintzen
Adam D. Shprintzen is Assistant Professor of History at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Adam received his PhD in History with distinction from Loyola University Chicago in May 2011, where his studies focused on nineteenth century America. Adam’s first book, entitled The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of an American Reform Movement, 1817-1921 was published by the University of North Carolina Press in October 2013.