By the 1880s, businesses used mechanical refrigeration to create ice for sale, although in colder climates ice was still cut from rivers and lakes (Cohen, 1982, p. 26). Because it took many years to perfect mechanical refrigeration and reduce its size for home use, natural ice continued to be used into the twentieth century (Rees, 2013, pp. 11-30).
In the 1880s, ice was usually sold to families for flat seasonal or monthly rates for daily delivery of a quantity ranging from 10 to 36 pounds (Anderson, 1953, p. 43). In cities, the iceman arrived in a wagon or truck, picked up an ice block with tongs, slung it over his leather-covered shoulder, and carried it into a home. In cold weather, people left perishables on a cold ledge or in an unheated part of the house (Cohen, 1982, p. 26).
From 1880 to 1917, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago increased ice usage five-fold and New Orleans thirteen-fold. By 1890, manufactured ice was available throughout the southeastern U.S., and, by 1910, throughout the northeast (Cowan, 1983, pp. 129-131). In a 1908 survey of New York working people, about four-fifths owned iceboxes. Although ice men delivered ice to homes in cities, even in the 1920s half the urban homes in the U.S. bought no ice. Many did not consider ice a necessity (Anderson, 1953, pp. 114-115; Strasser, 1983, pp. 21-22).
Icebox owners in the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries faced the problem of keeping foods at the right temperatures (Rees, 2013, p. 9). If an icebox was well insulated, it could keep air cool for several days, depending on outside temperatures and the number of times its door was opened (Cohen, 1982, p. 25). However, in warm months, milk would go bad in a day or two even in an icebox (Cohen, 1982, p. 7), and iceboxes dripped and smelled bad (Rubin, 1998, p. 48).
The photo at the top of this page shows a 1905 ad for a McCray refrigerator, which was an icebox with circulating air (McCray Refrigerator Company. Advertisement. Boyd’s 1905 Philadelphia Blue Book, Elite Directory. Philadelphia: C.E. Howe Co.). Below are two icebox drawings from 1913 and a photo of women delivering ice during World War I. Hover over the photos below for complete citations.