ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Chicago Worlds Fair product Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix

Updated on July 6, 2011

1893 CHICAGO WORLD'S FAIR LAGOON

The Chicago Worlds Fair was a signal to the United States and the world that the United States was no longer a upstart colony. The fair showcased American discoveries and culture.

The World Columbian Exposition , to give the fair its proper name, was an all electric fair, with modern plumbing, architecture and transportation. The fair had the first ferris wheel, moving sidewalk and other inventions. It also showcased many American consumer products, such as Cracker Jack ,Heinz 57 products, Baking Powder ,Quaker Oats and Saccharin. One of the most popular products was one of the first convenience foods; Aunt Jemima Pancake mix.

Pancakes have long been a diet staple. Once leavening, which caused bread and batter to rise, was developed, pancakes soon followed. They were relatively easy to make and could be fried over an open fire. Pancakes were popular all over Europe for hundreds of years before the founding of the American Colonies. The mix of milk, egg, flour and leavening was made from scratch each morning for breakfast. But this was too much work for some.

Chris Rutt, who was a reporter in St. Joseph, Missouri, loved pancakes, but he didn’t like to make them from scratch every day. So in 1889, he developed a pre-mixed pancake mix. He made it from flour, salt, baking soda and phosphate of lime and sold it in brown paper sacks. He succeeded in getting it on grocer’s shelves but it didn’t sell why. Part of the problem was people could easily make the product at home, why buy it?


But the lack of need hasn’t stopped American manufacturers before, Rutt decided the pancake mix just needed to be advertised properly.

Enter Baker and Farrell, famous blackface minstrel comedians. Rutt attended a show where the duo performed a number to the tune “Aunt Jemima.” Baker performed in blackface with a white apron and a red bandanna, the stereotypical uniform of a Southern female cook.

1950'S TV COMMERCIAL

Rutt liked the name and the outfit so he adopted both for his pancake mix. This worked and the product started to sell locally. Rutt soon sold his company to the Davis Milling Company and they decided to promote the pancake mix at the Chicago World’s Fair.

The Milling Company hired Nancy Green, an African-American Chicago cook. She cooked pancakes for fairgoers for months. She was very popular and made over a million pancakes for fairgoers. Nancy Green was the image of Aunt Jemima until her death in 1923, she toured around the country making pancakes until the end.

Of course, the campaign was racist; a black woman living to serve white people too lazy to mix up their own pancake mix. But Aunt Jemima is still an advertising icon today.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)