BackStory

American as Pumpkin Pie: A History of Thanksgiving

11/23/2009 - Join the Discussion | (15 Comments)

When we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, we think we know what we’re commemorating. But if an actual Pilgrim were to attend your Thanksgiving, chances are he’d be stunned by what he saw there. In this episode, historian James McWilliams discusses why the Puritans would have turned up their noses at our "traditional" Thanksgiving foods. Religion scholar Anne Blue Wills reveals the Victorian  origins of our modern holiday, and one woman's campaign to fix it on the national calendar. An archeologist at Colonial Williamsburg explains what garbage has to tell us about early American diets. And legendary NFL quarterback Roger Staubach describes what it was like to spend every turkey day on the football field.

Full Transcript
———————————————————————–

Show Highlights

Sarah Hale: The Mother of Thanksgiving
Historian Anne Blue Wills tells the story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a New England magazine editor who campaigned tirelessly to put Thanksgiving on our national calendar.

View an audio slide show of "The Mother of Thanksgiving." See images of Godey's Lady's Book, presidential Thanksgiving Day proclamations, and penitant puritans. Be sure and click on "Captions" in the lower right corner of the viewer.

View an audio slide show of "Turkeys and Touchdowns: An Interview with Roger Staubach." See historical images of Americans playing football and hear Staubach, former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, dish on turkeys and pigskin.

No, Thanks!
Historian James McWilliams tells 18th Century History Guy Peter Onuf why the Pilgrims and Indians would probably have been grossed out by each other’s contributions to the Thanksgiving table.

Related Links:

• Learn more about Thanksgiving turkey pardons.
• Read up on the Pilgrims' struggles with New World agriculture.
• View Anne Blue Wills' article on Pilgrims and progress.
• Discover the domestic roots of Thanksgiving.
• Consider the importance of Thanksgiving realities versus traditions.
• Browse a wide variety of Thanksgiving history articles.
• Compare competing "first Thanksgivings" in Virginia, Texas, and Florida.
• Read a translation of an Iroquois prayer of thanksgiving.
• Appreciate 500 years of Thanksgiving history with this timeline.
• Listen to "real" Pilgrims answer questions about their 1621 thanksgiving.
• Watch an online documentary about Sarah Hale.

Primary Sources:

All Centuries

• Recollections of Thanksgiving, from the frontier to New York City

• Presidential Thanksgiving proclamations: typescripts and original documents
• A set of primary source materials from the Library of Congress

18th Century

• Firsthand accounts of the Plymouth thanksgiving: Edward Winslow and William Bradford

19th Century

• Sarah Hale's letter to Abraham Lincoln and her editorials penned in Godey's Lady's Book
• Domestic manuals by Sarah Hale: Receipts for the Million, Modern Household Cookery, Lessons from Women's Lives, Traits of American Life (includes a chapter on "The Thanksgiving of the Heart"), and The Good Housekeeper
• "The Soldier's Thanksgiving," a poem included in care packages to Union fighters during the Civil War

20th Century

• "A Day of Thanksgiving," a patriotic film from 1951, explores one family's response to lean times
• The American Can Company presents "The Miracle of the Can," ca. 1956
• "Poultry on the Farm," an educational film from 1937