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181 Conclusion Icons of Abundance Here, then, in this Sioux City Corn Palace is the story of the . . . magical development of the great northwest. In view of this there can be no wonder that the thousands have made such haste . . . to seize upon such lands, such unfailing mines of wealth and plenty. —Sioux City Journal, October 4, 1887 What lessons are there in this history? This study of corn palaces, crop art, and butter sculpture has addressed questions about the origin of food constructions, the development of butter and crop art in the 1870–1930 period, their meaning in the context of midwestern expansion, and their survival in the latter twentieth century. It has also explored the gendered images associated with butter-art products. This Conclusion explores the underlying values represented in food-art constructions. Three themes seem to recur. First, food art may have begun on the tables of the wealthy and powerful, but its audiences democratically expanded at local festivals, state fairs, and international expositions. The bounty on display was deemed a mark of Providence. Second, the exhibits reflected new scientific and technological changes that helped spur production and the growth of markets. But while representing the celebration of modernism and progress, food art also contained a significant undertone of anxiety about the changes being wrought in society. Third, and most important, the concept of abundance underlay all of the displays, speaking not only to the sheer bounty of the constructions but also to their profound meaning for both their creators and their audiences. It is an idea with important implications for today as well. Democracy and Providence Food art’s history started with the wealthy and powerful. Fifteenth-, sixteenth-, and seventeenth -century banquet art was found on the tables of kings and popes, nobles and rulers. ICON S OF ABUNDANCE 182 Its early elite history reflected the fact that few people had so much food that they could waste it making art. Uncertain cycles of droughts, plagues, civil unrest, and feudal and tenant systems of land ownership ensured that the majority of people in most of history lived on the edge of hunger. As Robert Darnton has pointed out, any peasant given three wishes in a fairy tale usually asked first for food.1 “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and even “Goldilocks” deal with protagonists who are hungry. For Hansel and Gretel to find a house of cake in the forest had a powerful meaning, because sugar was a luxury well into the eighteenth century. The Cockaigne arch (see Figure 1.6) put up as part of a preLenten festival in eighteenth-century Naples not only represented the luxury of food; it also served as a reminder of how often both fairy tales and public festivals reversed the usual social order by allowing commonfolk to carry away the food. These may have been bread-and-circus strategies through which the rich kept the peasants from rebelling, but they also remind us how important food was as a symbol. The Industrial Revolution eventually changed a condition of insecurity, scarcity, and want into one of stability, excess, and desire; and the modern industrial fair, harvest festival , and corn palace celebrated the change. As one commentator said of Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition, the displays represented “peace and plenty” and an “endless abundance ,” as well as “a feast of the good things of material life.”2 Moreover, these celebrations were feasts, at least in America, that were supposedly enjoyed by everyone. There were still poor and hungry people, there were still recessions, droughts, and floods, but, like the tales of Cockaigne, the fairs, festivals, and corn palaces promised that this abundance was available for all. The populism of food art is also expressed through its playful humor. The comedy of the Satyricon, for example, offers exaggerated food constructions and a mocking of the banquet’s host, though it also reminds us that food art was funny only if one could afford it. The Industrial Revolution allowed America to portray itself as the land of plenty, promising abundance for all, and that vision’s success is evident in the audiences that found corn palaces and crop and butter art not only amazing but also amusing entertainment. They could identify with the down-home quality of corn palaces and butter sculpture. Unlike the elite sugar used in art of the earlier periods, corn and butter were commonplace, accessible , and mundane. Their everyday quality made their appearance in colossally scaled crop...

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