The flatware in this exhibit reflects American middle-class culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Students in His234 found that middle-class culture developed at the intersections of the private and public spheres. For example, hotel restaurants used matching flatware to create an elegant, homelike ambience. In turn, customers who used such flatware when they were dining in public then purchased their own sets to use at home.
Items are on display on the second floor of the Duggan Library, during regular library hours.
Dining room at the LaSalle Hotel (Chicago) about 1910. Image from John Chuckman's Chicago Nostalgia and Memorabilia.