Evelene Spencer, the Fish Evangelist

At the turn of the 20th century, most Americans didn't eat fish if it could be avoided. Eating meat was a symbol of prosperity, and fish (seafood, too) was food for poor people. In 1909, the average American ate 150 pounds of meat per year, and only 10 pounds of seafood. Then World War I began, and the government encouraged people to cut back on meat consumption in order to feed the troops. It wasn't enough to ask for sacrifice, they needed to make fish popular.

In 1915, the United States Bureau of Fisheries (which later became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) hired a restaurant owner named Evelene Spencer and gave her the title of Fish Cookery Expert. Spencer took the job to heart, and participated in the government's push to promote fish in every way possible. She appeared on posters, in cooking demonstrations, in film, in newspapers, and became the celebrity chef of her time. Spencer wrote a book with the ungainly title Fish Cookery: six hundred recipes for the preparation of fish, shellfish and other aquatic animals, including fish soups, salads and entrees, with accompanying sauces, seasonings, dressings and forcemeats.

Housewives were eager to receive Spencer's advice, because eating fish was not only deemed patriotic at the time, but it was a lot cheaper than serving meat. Her book helped those who had never prepared fish to clean, cook, and preserve fish and seafood and make it more palatable than ever before. Spencer was America's Fish Cookery Expert until 1922, but her influence lasted much longer. Read about the Fish Evangelist and how she changed the American diet at Atlas Obscura.

(Image source: National Archives)