One of the surprise hits of the summer is “What’s Cooking: East Hampton Kitchens 1648-1948,” an exhibit organized by the East Hampton Historical Society of contents of the area’s early kitchens. You may wonder why there is so much interest now (in a time when kitchens are more showplaces than workplaces, and many current kitchen islands are larger than entire historic kitchens) in the simple, labor-intensive implements of preceding generations.
Richard Barons, executive director of the society, told us, “Viewers are startled by the objects. They first try to guess the uses, then they check it out and say how thankful they are they don’t have to work as hard.”
Life was very basic indeed for East Hampton residents in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They ground their own corn, churned their own butter, made their own cheeses, baked their own breads and pies, stuffed their own sausages, roasted their own coffee, and made their own mousetraps—and that’s just the start. They did it day in and day out, since they did not have refrigeration or running water until the 20th century.
Many of these tools of quotidian life are beautiful and shapely to our modern eyes, and it’s a good bet they were more than merely functional to the craftsmen who made them and the housewives who used them. Little motifs—heart shapes, swirls, textures, geometric rhythms—are subtle but spirited and assured, and they have visual appeal even after centuries.
"Everyday objects are the rarest,” Frank Newbold, chair of the Collections Committee explained. “Families saved the wedding dress or the special occasion object. Household items were used by frugal settlers until they literally fell apart, and even then they were recycled. The historical society is fortunate to have such an extensive collection that we can recreate what it was like to prepare a meal 100, 200, or 300 years ago."
The objects in the show are carefully chosen. The inventiveness of each and their relation to one another lifts them beyond the utilitarian, beyond even folk art, bringing to the viewer the imagined life of an East Hampton homemaker. This immediacy is reinforced by a elaborate nineteenth century woodburning kitchen stove, later converted to gas, that actually remained in use in a village house until a few years ago when the elderly owner died.