Dietary Advice Past and Present: The Historical Dietary Guidance Digital Collection

The United States government has published dietary advice for Americans for over one hundred years. In response to popular and professional interest in food history, the National Agricultural Library is currently collecting, digitizing, and uniting these publications into a single online tool, the Historical Dietary Guidance Digital Collection. This poster will present a brief history of federal dietary guidance publications and the collection’s utility as a resource for historical research, analysis, and education.

Federal dietary guidance has its roots in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s involvement in a range of activities throughout the twentieth century, from scientific research, rural life, home economics, and administration of food assistance programs. Today, a variety of federal agencies communicate dietary guidance, reflecting the broad impact of food on public health, disease prevention, commercial regulation, and social programs. This poster will trace this evolution in federal government interests and responsibilities. Federal nutrition guidance has evolved not only with a changing government, but also with broader historical circumstances. Utilizing modern chemistry in pursuit of sound nutrition, these reports, pamphlets, radio transcripts, and other documents reveal evolving attitudes towards domestic labor, health, and consumer culture. The poster will highlight sample documents from the Digital Collection (illustrated by screenshots), revealing their institutional backgrounds and historical contexts.

The poster will conclude by demonstrating how these primary sources may complement contemporary historical scholarship and suggesting potential avenues of future research. These avenues may include, for example, analysis of changing target demographics and evolving conceptions of ordinary Americans, or changes in family composition in the late twentieth century. By demonstrating the potential value of the collection, the poster will invite historians to explore these sources for themselves and pursue their own inquiry.