WWI-era Poster, courtesy of National Archives
Editor's Note: This content is cross-posted at my Squidoo page, Join the Victory Garden Revival. You'll also find over there some information on the similarities/differences between today's revival and past efforts and 6 easy tips on how you can promote the movement. Check it out! Oh, and if you're looking for Monday's usual Media & Web Watch...it'll be back tomorrow. (I took a long weekend off from writing!)
A Brief History of Victory Gardening
Although most of us think of WWII-era Victory Gardening or the popular PBS series, the concept's roots go much further back. According to scholar Amy Bentley, the term can be traced back to England in the 1600s when Richard Gardner produced a book, Victory Garden, encouraging cities to provide for its citizenry through gardens in anticipation of possible invasion by Spain.
It would be well over 300 years...at the end of WWI...that the term "Victory Garden" became widely used stateside.
During WWI, "war garden" was the common phrase, denoting the primarily urban and suburban vegetable beds created to provide sustenance during the conflict. Having seen the nation's Allies suffer with food shortages, civic and political leaders wanted to prepare the country for hard times. They also wanted to keep both troop and citizen morale high by cultivating a sense of patriotic self-sufficiency. Efforts were understandably concentrated in larger cities since more rural areas regularly relied on gardens and farms.
Through posters, pamphlets, and other propaganda, the federal government and private entities (including businesses, civic groups and schools) promoted gardening as a civic virtue. It was often noted that none other than Thomas Jefferson had seen a direct relationship between gardening and good citizenship. This was true. As he commented once to John Jay, ""Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it's liberty and interests by the most lasting bands" (Letter to John Jay, 23 August 1785).
Over a year prior to and throughout America's engagement in the First World War (and with the aid of the National War Garden Committee comprised of civic and business leaders), vegetable gardens were established in a variety of places, from front yards to vacant lots to The White House. Gardeners were encouraged to store and preserve food using canning and drying techniques.
Between the wars, school gardens (which had begun in the late 1890s) kept the concept of gardening as a form of patriotic self-sufficiency top of mind. There was a fair amount of urban gardening during the Depression as well, with many people seeking to relearn basic homesteading skills.
During the Second World War, the government and a private group promoted Victory Gardening together with canning and freezing as a means of addressing potential food scarcity problems at home and abroad. There was also the matter of conserving fuel for the war effort. Food produced close to home didn't require transport, thus less gasoline was required overall.
Once more, the government relied upon posters and other propaganda to garner support and interest. The private sector's National Victory Garden Institute helped spread the notion. too. Likewise Eleanor Roosevelt's White House Victory Garden generated positive press. Also, as was done in WWI, local and regional committees created a network of support for neophyte gardeners. The combination of civic activism coupled with propaganda was successful. It's widely reported that near the end of the Second World War, the nation's 20 million gardeners produced some 40% of the nation's total food production. While there is some evidence to suggest that the oft-quoted figure was inflated, those mid-century gardeners certainly accomplished much in ensuring easy access to food during bleak times.
After WWII, improvements in agriculture and a prevailing sense that fuel would never diminish led gardening to move off of the nation's agenda in favor of other concerns. In the 1960s and '70s there were periodic movements to return to self-sufficiency through gardening, but none of those movements reached the scale or garnered the wide-spread support of the nation's public and private sector leadership.
In recent years, with renewed interest in local produce, organic and sustainable agriculture, and concerns about food and fuel security attracting new interest, authors, bloggers and journalists have begun to push forward a Victory Garden revival. An increasing number of pro-Victory Garden videos are also accessible via You Tube. In fact, it may be argued that new media has empowered citizens to seed the notion in a way that mirrors the government's earlier propaganda efforts.
Will the nascent revival succeed? That remains to be seen. Optimistically speaking, the creation of a new Victory Garden on the grounds of San Francisco's Civic Center this summer paired with a troubled economy and the possibility that we may not have enough fuel in the future suggest that a full-scale revival is plausible AND potentially essential to our long-term survival.
Select Sources:
Bentley, Amy. Eating for Victory: Food Rationing & the Politics of Domesticity. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
Pack, Charles Lathrop. The War Garden Victorious. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1919. (Accessible on Google Books)
Did I forget anything essential? Have something to add from your own experience? Post a comment...
It would be well over 300 years...at the end of WWI...that the term "Victory Garden" became widely used stateside.
During WWI, "war garden" was the common phrase, denoting the primarily urban and suburban vegetable beds created to provide sustenance during the conflict. Having seen the nation's Allies suffer with food shortages, civic and political leaders wanted to prepare the country for hard times. They also wanted to keep both troop and citizen morale high by cultivating a sense of patriotic self-sufficiency. Efforts were understandably concentrated in larger cities since more rural areas regularly relied on gardens and farms.
Through posters, pamphlets, and other propaganda, the federal government and private entities (including businesses, civic groups and schools) promoted gardening as a civic virtue. It was often noted that none other than Thomas Jefferson had seen a direct relationship between gardening and good citizenship. This was true. As he commented once to John Jay, ""Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it's liberty and interests by the most lasting bands" (Letter to John Jay, 23 August 1785).
Over a year prior to and throughout America's engagement in the First World War (and with the aid of the National War Garden Committee comprised of civic and business leaders), vegetable gardens were established in a variety of places, from front yards to vacant lots to The White House. Gardeners were encouraged to store and preserve food using canning and drying techniques.
Between the wars, school gardens (which had begun in the late 1890s) kept the concept of gardening as a form of patriotic self-sufficiency top of mind. There was a fair amount of urban gardening during the Depression as well, with many people seeking to relearn basic homesteading skills.
During the Second World War, the government and a private group promoted Victory Gardening together with canning and freezing as a means of addressing potential food scarcity problems at home and abroad. There was also the matter of conserving fuel for the war effort. Food produced close to home didn't require transport, thus less gasoline was required overall.
Once more, the government relied upon posters and other propaganda to garner support and interest. The private sector's National Victory Garden Institute helped spread the notion. too. Likewise Eleanor Roosevelt's White House Victory Garden generated positive press. Also, as was done in WWI, local and regional committees created a network of support for neophyte gardeners. The combination of civic activism coupled with propaganda was successful. It's widely reported that near the end of the Second World War, the nation's 20 million gardeners produced some 40% of the nation's total food production. While there is some evidence to suggest that the oft-quoted figure was inflated, those mid-century gardeners certainly accomplished much in ensuring easy access to food during bleak times.
After WWII, improvements in agriculture and a prevailing sense that fuel would never diminish led gardening to move off of the nation's agenda in favor of other concerns. In the 1960s and '70s there were periodic movements to return to self-sufficiency through gardening, but none of those movements reached the scale or garnered the wide-spread support of the nation's public and private sector leadership.
In recent years, with renewed interest in local produce, organic and sustainable agriculture, and concerns about food and fuel security attracting new interest, authors, bloggers and journalists have begun to push forward a Victory Garden revival. An increasing number of pro-Victory Garden videos are also accessible via You Tube. In fact, it may be argued that new media has empowered citizens to seed the notion in a way that mirrors the government's earlier propaganda efforts.
Will the nascent revival succeed? That remains to be seen. Optimistically speaking, the creation of a new Victory Garden on the grounds of San Francisco's Civic Center this summer paired with a troubled economy and the possibility that we may not have enough fuel in the future suggest that a full-scale revival is plausible AND potentially essential to our long-term survival.
Select Sources:
Bentley, Amy. Eating for Victory: Food Rationing & the Politics of Domesticity. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
Pack, Charles Lathrop. The War Garden Victorious. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1919. (Accessible on Google Books)
Did I forget anything essential? Have something to add from your own experience? Post a comment...
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