Cooking School and Home Show, 1930 - 1969
Biographical / Historical
The AFRO Cooking School, also known as the AFRO Cooking School and Home Show or Home Services Show, was first held in 1932 and continued until at least 1969. The event was held for some period of time in each of the cities where the AFRO had editions and offices, including Baltimore, Washington, Newark, Richmond, and Philadelphia.
The Cooking School in Baltimore was first held in September 1932 at St. Peter Claver church in West Baltimore and in later years was held at the Coliseum, and then at the Winchester Armory, now known as the Melvin H. Cade Armory, a facility which had been built for the African American Maryland National Guardsmen in 1959. In Washington, D.C. the event was first held at the Masonic Temple in the 1930s, and later at the Lincoln Colonnade on U Street for many years. The Philadelphia event was held at the Strand in the 1930s and later at the Fleischer Auditorium, and Newark's Cooking School took place at the Continental Ballroom.
The event was free to the public and featured booths and displays created by manufacturers of food, kitchen, and other home-related consumer products. Across several days, attendees could see demonstrations by featured "home economists," participate cooking contests, and win prizes and giveaways offered by the AFRO and its advertisers and sponsors. Attendance in 1932 was reported to be 4,000, and by 1954 the AFRO reported 10,000 attendees. In 1953 a sponsor underwrote an entire wedding and honeymoon in Miami for a lucky couple, and in 1954 a new car was among the prizes given away.
AFRO staff may have gotten the idea from a similar effort mounted by the Kansas City Star in April 1932. The Baltimore AFRO reported on the Kansas cooking school on April 14, 1932, noting “The most pleasing recipes and the latest methods in the culinary art were demonstrated by Mrs. Dorothy Clock Diggle, instructor. A total of 164 prizes was given away free. A similar school is planned later in the year for the AFRO in Baltimore.” A photograph shows an auditorium filled to capacity with women, an image that is found repeatedly across the decades of the AFRO Cooking School’s morgue files, along with photographs of women winning prizes and giving classes and demonstrations.
Scope and Contents
The morgue files related to the AFRO Cooking School contain mainly photographs, photomontages, and clippings from the AFRO Cooking School in each of its locations across the decades. Pictured are the vendor booths and displays, shots of crowds inside and outside venues, prize winners, demonstrators, and attendees. Clippings and captions contain the names and often the addresses of prize winners, and feature large photo-spreads from the event.
Extent
1.2 Linear Feet
Dates
- Creation: 1930 - 1969
Arrangement
Files are arranged by location and then chronologically for each location. A handful of folders arranged at the end of the subseries contain content from multiple locations, and a few items filed by personal name and subject.
Additional material related to the Cooking School may be found elsewhere in the morgue filed under the names of prize winners, demonstrators, and other notable people.
Business records related to the AFRO Cooking School are found in the AFRO Business Records collection.
Processing Information
The AFRO Subjects series of the AFRO Morgue files has been processed in tandem with the morgue processing project that began in 2023. Material in this series brings together files formerly scattered across the morgue. In creating this arrangement, in some cases material once filed under an inidividual's name may be filed under a more general subject heading related to the AFRO program.
Processing of the AFRO Subjects series of the AFRO Morgue files is ongoing. As each subject is completed, metadata is added to the finding aid.
Sources consulted for the historical notes are cited at the subseries level.
Bibliography
"AFRO SPONSORS COOKING SCHOOL FOR HOUSEWIVES: THREE-NIGHT SESSION BEGINS SEPT. 28 AT ST. PETER CLAVER'S. COOKING EXPERT HEADS INSTITUTE MISS LAURA KENNEDY WILL CONDUCT WORK. (1932, Sep 17). Baltimore Afro-American (1893-)
"Over 4,000 women at afro school--couple wedded 50Yrs.--mills brother help 'Y'." (1932, Nov 05). Baltimore Afro-American (1893-)
"Over 10,000 attend Afro's cooking school: Winner of grand prize automobile shrieks with joy enthusiosm high despite antics of hurricane hazel." (1954, Oct 30). Baltimore Afro-American (1893-)
Original Location
DS0203, GFA 004; HL0101, HAL 001; ML0104, MAR 012; ML0703, MAR 116; ML1104, MAR 188; ML1304, MAR 231; ML1804, MAR 330; TN0306, TUB 037; TN0405, TUB 058; TN1307, TUB 243; TN1307, TUB 244
Repository Details
Part of the AFRO American Newspapers Archives Repository