TONIGHT - Speaker to address Food’s Role in Washington State History

Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008 7 PM
Where: Clark County Historical Museum, 1511 Main Street, Vancouver, WA 98660
Contact: Museum Staff, (360) 993-5679 or tissots@pacifier.com.
Admission is FREE

CLARK COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM HOSTS:
Food for All Ages:
What the Meals We Feed Our Children Reveal About Washington State History
A Lecture by Dr. Candice Goucher, Professor of History, Washington State University & Affiliate with the Center for Columbia River History

The Clark County Historical Museum, VANCOUVER, is featuring a free lecture in conjunction with their hosting of the Smithsonian exhibit, Key Ingredients: America By Food, which delves into the historical, regional and social traditions that merge in everyday meals and celebrations of the American table.

Working in cooperation with the Center for Columbia River History and Washington State University, on Thursday August 21, 2008 at 7 PM, Dr. Candice Goucher will speak on, Food for All Ages: What the Meals We Feed Our Children Reveal About Washington State History. The lecture will be given inside the Clark County Historical Museum and is free and open to the public. Participants will also be able to view the current exhibits at the museum, including Key Ingredients, Boomer! and Woven History: Native American Basketry.

According to Dr. Goucher, food memories from childhood provide the most intimate and earliest traces of cultural identity and collectively build the foundations of the individual’s lifetime in the shared community beyond the walls of home. The study of food can stimulate comparisons of “then and now” and “mine and yours,” fueling the historical imagination in ways that offer unique insights into cultural identity and place our own personal experience in relation to the wider world. This lecture will focus on the last two centuries of the history of food in Washington State from the unique perspective of childhood. Among the most vulnerable in society, children can reflect both the cultural continuities inherited from families and the changes forged through wider social interactions. Together these forces create the dynamic experience of the modern world, at once a recipe for exploring the global dimensions of multicultural differences and the homogenizing sameness of our twenty-first century cuisines. Ultimately, what children ate and what they didn’t eat reveals much about our shared values. What food choices have we made in the past? What can the meals from the past tell us about how our future tastes are likely to be shaped? The lecture will be illustrated and presented in a PowerPoint format.

WHAT”S UP NEXT: On Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 7 PM Chef Aaron Chapin will speak on the, Culinary Footprints of Clark County. Chapin’s lecture and demonstration will focus on sustainable cooking with an emphasis on buying local and eating what is in season. For more information contact the Clark County Historical Museum at (360) 993-5679 or visit: www.cchmuseum.org or www.keyingredients.org.

CLARK COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM INFORMATION: The Clark County Historical Museum is housed in Vancouver’s 1909 Carnegie Library which is located at 1511 Main St. Vancouver, WA 98660. Regular museum hours are: Tuesday through Saturday 11-4 PM. Admission rates apply. The museum is also open first Thursday evenings from 5-9 PM for First Thursday Museum After Hours. A wheelchair accessible entrance to the museum is located on the east side of the museum building accessed from 16th street.