For sale is an antique ICE PICK from the People’s Ice Company, Easton, MD, Telephone 331. The ice pick is in overall great condition but there is the typical wear to the wood handle with some paint loss. The handles has the following text: “ICE NEED NO EXPERT CARE”, “THOSE WHO KNOW PREFER ICE”, “SAVE WITH ICE”, and “THE PEOPLE ICE COMPANY – PHONE 331 – EASTON, MD”. Judging from the three digit phone number, this pick probably dates to the 1920s. A cool advertising collectible.
Ice played a much more important role in the household before electric refrigeration. Iceboxes that used a block of ice hit an industrial high that ran from the mid-19th century to the 1930s, when the refrigerator was introduced into the home. Most municipally consumed ice was harvested in winter from snow-packed areas or frozen lakes, stored in ice houses, and delivered domestically. In 1907, a survey of New York City inhabitants determined that 81% of the families possessed “refrigerators” either in the form of ice stored in a tub or an iceboxes. The widespread use of iceboxes was partially credited with reduction of US infant mortality in summer months.
