Most would agree that summer is the peak season for ice cream consumption. Therefore it makes perfect sense that, in the United States, July was proclaimed National Ice Cream Month. It was President Ronald Reagan’s Proclamation 5219 promoted this national observance, designating July 1984 as National Ice Cream Month. Today ice cream manufacturers carry on this tradition (Note: This tradition can be traced back to the begining of the 20th century- see our Pic of the Week: National Ice Cream Days of Past post that features a 1920 Washington Times advertisement.)
An old high school friend of mine posted on her Facebook page that July 23 is National Vanilla Ice Cream Day. I did some research and could not identify who started this day- there is an absence of documentation.
Despite the lack of evidence on the origination of National Vanilla Ice Cream Day, it still can be celebrated. One way to do this is by making Thomas Jefferson’s vanilla ice cream recipe . More than likely Jefferson got this recipe from France. Food historians state that vanilla ice cream proliferated in 18th century France, hence we have the French vanilla ice cream flavor. Vanilla, indigenous to Mexico, came to Europe in the 16th century. It may be hard to read Jefferson’s handwriting- so here is a transcription from Monticello.
If you are interested in learning more about the history and science of ice cream see our guide to ice cream
And if you still want more, Our Music Division’s In the Muse blog also has a post about ice cream - Two Scoops from the Music Division.
Comments (6)
The LOC is taking well over a year to process copyright registrations; the new eCO electronic registration system is an unworkable kludge. Correct that; an unusable pigpen.
Does it really make sense to throw away energy and time and our tax money on useless garbage like articles about artery-clogging, obesity-inducing, heart attack-encouraging junk foods?
ice cream was my favorite food when i was growing up
Jennifer, thanks for the early jump on National VIC day. I was an associate librarian at Thetford Grammar School, in Thetford, England
This was Thomas Paine’s alma mata & I took care of his hand written school books in the mid 1970’s. When he escaped to France in the 1790’s he was communicating via letter with Thomas Jefferson inthe US. Was it early or late 1780’s dating of the Thomas Jefferson ice cream recipe?
Hi Martin, Thankx for writing in. Unfortunately, there is no date on the ice cream recipe. You might wish to pose this question to our archivist of the Jefferson papers in the Library’s Manuscript Reading Room. They might be able to shed some additional details about this recipe.