Today we’re talking about Self-Service Food Stores, a 1946 book published by the trade magazine The Progressive Grocer. The book evokes the enormous post-war changes in the way that Americans shopped for food, as a world of milkmen, butchers, and mom-and-pop grocery shops gave way to gleaming new supermarkets that offered lower prices, pre-packaged goods, and seemingly unlimited selection. These changes were made possible by the newly built highway system, advances in preservation and refrigeration, and produce imports from overseas. In this episode we reflect on how quickly the once futuristic supermarket has come to seem like the most natural way to buy groceries, and the possible social cost of all that convenience and fresh fruit.
Brattlecast #115 - On the Roadshow
In this episode Ken takes us behind the scenes of Antiques Roadshow, GBH’s long-running appraisal program. Filming a season of Antiques Roadshow offers more than a shot at PBS fame and prestige—you also get to take a vacation to an offbeat city (or a road trip through a few) and socialize with a tight knit community of fellow appraisers. We’ll hear about how it all works, what it takes to get your item on TV, and some of Ken’s most memorable moments from his years on the show.
Brattlecast #114 - Old Boston Directories
Today we’re talking about some new arrivals to the shop: Boston Directories from the 1800’s. Like a precursor to the modern day phone book (or, come to think of it, the slightly less antique phone book) these directories listed the residents of the city of Boston with their addresses and occupations, as well as local businesses and public officials. Perhaps most fascinatingly, they also included a map of the city, which grew steadily from edition to edition as hills were flattened and bodies of water filled in to create new land and new neighborhoods, including the Back Bay, Chinatown, and the Financial District.
If you’re not able to make it into the shop to see them in person, you can view some Directories in the Boston Athenaeum’s digital collections here.
Brattlecast #113 - The Grass is Always Greener
In this episode, Ken shares his advice for book collectors who want to become book dealers, and for book dealers who want to start collecting. If you’re someone who loves books, starting a bookshop may sound like fun, but it can be a real challenge to make a living at it. And, if you’re someone who sells books, keeping too many for yourself can become a kind of occupational hazard. Even though it’s best not to get too “high on your own supply,” Ken does confess to having a few quirky collections of his own. We’ll talk about them, and a lot more, on this listener question-inspired #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #112 - African American Periodicals
Today we’re talking about historic African American periodicals. These newspapers and magazines often had smaller circulations than their white, mainstream counterparts, making them harder to find and more collectible today. It’s a broad and varied field, which includes the abolitionist newspapers of the early 1800s like Freedom’s Journal and The North Star, the literary journals of the Harlem Renaissance, and more recent lifestyle magazines like Ebony and Jet. These periodicals were influential in promoting the social movements of their times and can provide an important parallel history directly from the Black voices that were all too often excluded from and ignored by the mainstream American press.