Home Comforts:
The Cast-Iron Stove & Its Industry
in Victorian & Post-Victorian America

This is the place to begin if you have ever felt a need to know about the first consumer durable goods with near-universal market penetration in U.S. history, or if you are just enthusiastic about the great lumps of highly-decorated cast iron which were turned out by the million to cook people’s food, heat their water, and warm their homes, schools, offices, shops, churches, railroad stations, and indeed every conceivable private and public space.

A starting-point on your quest might be the contributions of “stove_fanatic” (me) on Discuss Detroit in March 2006.  One of the list members was good enough to refer to my nicely-illustrated jottings as “STOVES 101,” i.e. an introductory course.  You can check out an edited version of the ensuing discussion here – mostly me rabbiting on, but getting some interest.

Howell Harris