The Kellogg Family “Business,” Part II

Last week, we looked at one of the works of Ella Eaton Kellogg (1853-1920), an author, educator, lecturer, and advocate. This week, we’re continuing our exploration of the Kellogg food dynasty with one of her husband’s books. John Harvey Kellogg, M.D (1852-1943) was an interesting man. While we won’t delve too deeply into his biography (there’s a great deal to tell and choosing highlights is difficult!), we’ll discover a few things along the way. But first, a word from our “sponsor.”

c. 1882 advertisement for the Battle Creek (Michigan) Sanitarium. This advertisement was printed in one of Kellogg’s books from the period, but it would have likely appeared in other sources, including newspapers.

The Battle Creek Sanitarium opened in 1876 (Kellogg took over the existing “Western Health Reform Institute, previously run by the Seventh-Day Adventists, of which Kellogg was a member until 1907). Although the buildings and campus would see continued use through World War II and beyond–the tower building became a hospital in World War II and later, in the 1970s, the facility was a psychiatric hospital–the sanitarium as Kellogg imagined it did not last much past his death in 1943.

Our feature item this week is The New Dietetics; A Guide to Scientific Feeding in Health and Disease. It was first published in 1921 (the year following Ella Kellogg’s death–not surprisingly, this book is dedicated to her). Our copy is a third edition, published in 1927.

Title page

Sample pages from the table of contents

The value of nuts!

A note on meat

Meal planning for children

I haven’t included too many pages this week for a couple of reasons. One, this text, as well as earlier editions, are available online in their entirety (see links below). Two, the few illustrations/images are included are…well, not all that exciting. Unless you’re intrigued by depictions of starch granules, the effect of rickets on children, and the digestive tract, of course. And three, there just aren’t that many images. Lots of tables (you’ll see a few above), but Kellogg came from a medical background and his books are very text-based. He was prolific in a variety of formats, writing more than 50 books and at least as many articles. His works shared his theories on health, nutrition, hygiene, sex, and raising families and children.

You can find the full version of our copy from 1927 online through VTechWorks: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/10319. You can find first edition from 1921 online through the Hathi Trust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.319510004428083. Hathi Trust also includes a second edition.

If you’d like to know more about John Kellogg himself, there are some great resources on and off-line! I recommend you check out the “Further Reading” and “External Links” sections in the Wikipedia page about him, as well as this online biography (which also includes more resources).

Next week, we’re going to look at some pamphlets and advertising materials from the Kellogg company/Battle Creek AND we’ll take on the topic of corn flakes (it’s more exciting then you might realize!).

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