American as Pumpkin Pie: Further Reading
The following links and documents relate to the BackStory episode “American as Pumpkin Pie: A History of Thanksgiving”, originally broadcast in November of 2010. You can listen to the entire episode here.
All Centuries
- The history of politicizing Thanksgiving and Columbus Day
- A collection of Thanksgiving history from History News Network
- “The Thanksgivings”: an Iroquois prayer of thanksgiving
- 500 years of Thanksgiving history
- Recollections of Thanksgiving, from the frontier to New York City
- Presidential Thanksgiving proclamations: typescripts and original documents
- A set of primary source materials from the Library of Congress for classroom use
18th Century
- How did the colonial townspeople of Virginia and Maryland supply themselves with food and fuel?
- More from James McWilliams on the Pilgrims’ struggles with New World agriculture
- Anne Blue Wills’s article on Pilgrims and progress (PDF)
- Compare competing “first Thanksgivings” in Virginia, Texas, and Florida
- Firsthand accounts of the Plymouth thanksgiving: Edward Winslow and William Bradford
19th Century
- The evolution of Thanksgiving into a “domestic occasion“
- A documentary about Sarah Hale from PBS
- Sarah Hale: letter to Abraham Lincoln; editorials penned in Godey’s Lady’s Book
- Domestic manuals by Sarah Hale: Receipts for the Million, Modern Household Cookery, Lessons from Women’s Lives, Traits of American Life, and The Good Housekeeper
- “The Soldier’s Thanksgiving,” a poem included in care packages to Union fighters during the Civil War
20th Century & Beyond
- A booklet (for purchase) and photoessay about the annual Thanksgiving presidential turkey pardon
- The first Thanksgiving football broadcast in 1934
- “A Day of Thanksgiving,” a patriotic film from 1951, explores one family’s response to lean times
- The American Can Company presents “The Miracle of the Can,” ca. 1956
- “Poultry on the Farm,” an educational film from 1937
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American as Pumpkin Pie: A History of Thanksgiving | BackStory with the American History Guys :
[...] to learn more about the history of Thanksgiving? Check out a list of sources that the History Guys put together to learn [...]
Quote -- September 13, 2011 @ 3:41 pm



