The latest exhibit in the Clarke Historical Museum’s Emmerson Room provides a snapshot of what a Victorian-era home kitchen would have been like. “Arsenic and Old Lace: A Victorian Cookbook” complements the “Food and Drink History of Humboldt County” exhibit currently on view in the museum’s main hall. “The title for the exhibit was inspired by the play and movie ‘Arsenic and Old Lace,’” said Alexandra Cox, registrar-curator for the Clarke Museum, located at 240 E St.
in Old Town Eureka. “The exhibit highlights good and bad innovations in the food world,” she said, “such as preparation and cooking implements utilized during the Victorian era. For example, part of the exhibition features a table covered in the everyday cooking implements that would have been used in the home kitchens of the time, as well as two mannequins wearing simple everyday women’s clothing from the same period.
” Some of the kitchen items on display, Cox said, are things people still use today, such as pots, pans and rolling pins. “Other implements, such as the ‘Universal Tool,’ which was the Swiss Army knife of the Victorian kitchen, went out of fashion,” she said. There are also a few pieces that folks might be surprised to see in a kitchen-themed display.
This includes a couple of “poison” labels, which help to spotlight some of the hazards Victorian diners faced, Cox said. While the early Victorian diet was healthier in many respects, she noted, it could also .
