One of the universal conveniences of modern life, and a boon to those of us with little time to spend grocery shopping and cooking, was developed by a man who was born on this date in 1886. Clarence Birdseye was on a scientific expedition to Labrador early in the 20th century when he noticed that freshly caught fish froze solid almost immediately when exposed to Arctic atmospheric conditions. But when thawed and eaten, the fish still tasted fresh. Birdseye went on to develop a system of flash-freezing meat, fish, and vegetables under high pressure. The first retail frozen food went on sale in 1930, and by 1944, refrigerated railroad boxcars allowed frozen foods to be distributed across the nation. Today, frozen food is a $25 billion a year industry in the U.S. Profile America is in its 17th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Saturday, December 7th. Christmas Seals in the U.S. are 106 years old today. The first seals in America went on sale in 1907 at a table set up in the Wilmington, Delaware, post office. The idea was to sell special stamps to put on Christmas mailings, with the profits to go to help in the fight against tuberculosis. The goal was $300, and 10 times that amount were sold. The next year, sales reached $135,000. From then on, Christmas Seals have been sold nationwide and is the nation’s oldest direct mail fundraising campaign. Since 1973, these special stamps are sold by the American Lung Association and have accounted for up to 35 percent of its direct mail revenue. Individually Americans contribute over $225 billion a year to charitable causes. Profile America is in its 17th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sunday, December 8th. Oberlin College in Ohio has a distinguished reputation among American institutions of higher learning. Its fame would be secure just for its leadership before the Civil War in coeducational instruction and in admitting black students. But Oberlin added to its luster on this day in 1850 when it awarded the nation’s first four-year degree to an African-American woman, Lucy Stanton. She headed the school’s Ladies Literary Society, and her anti-slavery commencement address — titled “A Plea for the Oppressed” — can be found on the Internet. There are around 44 million African-Americans in today’s population and well over 18 percent of those over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher. For women, that figure is over 20 percent. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy from the American Community Survey at <www.census.gov>.