June 1, 2004 The iceman cometh to U-M ANN ARBOR, Mich.—No air-
conditioning, frozen or refrigerated foods, iced drinks or ice
cream. That's just a sampling of how drastically different our
lives and diets would be if there was no refrigeration. "It was
not so very long ago," said Janice Longone, curator of culinary
history at the University of Michigan's Clements Library, "that
meat was preserved primarily by drying or salting, that milk
could be preserved only in the form of butter and cheese, that
fresh fruits and vegetables were only available seasonally in
areas where they were grown." And then came ice and icehouses
followed by mechanical refrigeration. It is that history of
American ingenuity that Longone illustrates in the exhibition
"The Iceman Cometh... and Goeth" at the Clements Library June 8
through September. "Throughout history, the wealthy and powerful
had icehouses and ice available to them in limited quantities,"
Longone said. "But it took that American ingenuity to make ice
available to all.