Main Gallery Exhibits
at the Kansas Museum of History
Fast Food
Learn about the birth of the fast food industry
at the Kansas
Museum of History in Topeka.
You'll see:
Kansas restaurants were among the earliest to find new ways of serving
food to people on the move. Their new ideas soon affected
people throughout the nation.
The history of fast food begins with changes in transportation.
People began eating more meals away from home as planes, trains, and
automobiles allowed them to travel faster and farther. Jobs in offices
and factories required workers to eat lunch close to the workplace rather
than at home.
Fred Harvey
was the first to initiate a large-scale restaurant
chain. He opened a successful lunchroom in Topeka's Santa Fe depot
in 1876. Soon Harvey Houses and railroad dining services spread
throughout the West. They were famous for quality ingredients, reasonable
prices, immaculate dining rooms, and excellent waitresses.
White Castle, the first hamburger chain, opened in
Wichita in 1921. It was the first to have a single building style and
standard operations for all its restaurants. Even the appearance of
employees was regulated from head to toe.
Another Kansas industry that had a significant impact on the restaurant
business was Valentine Manufacturing
Company of Wichita, which manufactured prefabricated diner
buildings and distributed them nationwide from the 1930s through the
1970s.
Today, hundreds of fast food chains compete for customers throughout the United
States and beyond. Besides White
Castle, other fast food operations that got their start in Kansas
include Pizza Hut (the largest pizza restaurant chain in the world),
Big Cheese Pizza, Taco Tico, and Taco Grande.
"In the early days, the traveler fed on the buffalo.
For doing so, the buffalo got his picture on the nickel. Well, Fred
Harvey should have his picture on one side of the dime, and one of his
waitresses with her arms full of delicious ham and eggs on the other
side, 'cause they have kept the West supplied with food and wives."
-- Will Rogers, 1924
Hours and Fees
Museum hours are 9:00 a.m.
- 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sunday.
Closed Mondays and state holidays.
Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for members and seniors, $2 for students,
and $1 per student for school tours.
Information
For information on our facilities, see Visiting
the Kansas Museum of History. Contact us at KansasMuseum@kshs.org.
|
