I found this 1947 brochure for Youngstown Kitchens an interesting piece of ephemera. For one, the pictures are just brilliant. Secondly, it's a true blue product of its time - the woman's place was the kitchen. The only time a man appears in the catalog is to screw things up.
The Great Depression was less than a decade in the rearview mirror and suburban America was booming. They were having kids like freakin' rabbits (i.e. Baby Boomers) and, by comparison to the days before WWII, money was growing on trees. Dad got a GI bill to get him a house, a job selling shoes was a good income back then, and mom tended to the kitchen. And here is a bright, vibrant and optimistic declaration of mom's newfound opulence.
The best pictures are posted below, but if you want to read the whole scanned catalog, you can download it. Enjoy!
