About
The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Commerding's Cocktails revives American Gilded Age and Progressive Era cocktails; beverages that were consumed from the late 1870s to about 1920.
It was a time of railroads, women’s suffrage, spiritualism, robber barons, labor reform, both the Spanish-American War and World War I, and emigration from Europe. Theodore Roosevelt was the most notable president of the period. It coincided with Britain’s Victorian Era and France’s Belle Epoque.
Among others, authors Mark Twain, Henry James, and Emily Dickenson were popular. Marching band music such as John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever and church music as composed for America the Beautiful was in vogue, as well as ragtime music. People were dancing the waltz and the foxtrot with Vernon and Irene Castle. They were reading periodicals such as Harper’s Bazar, McClure’s, Good Housekeeping, and Vouge. The aesthetic was Art Nouveau. Silent films, vaudeville performances, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and the entertainment of Harry Houdini were all enjoyed.
It was a time of industrial revolution, income inequality, and muckrakers exposing corruption that led to expansive political reform and activism. It was a tumultuous and exciting time in American history that primed the population for the roaring twenties.
Who is Commerdinger?
The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
The Commerdinger name is an important part of my family's legacy. It represents the enduring and resourceful people that have contributed to who I and my family members are today. Pictured above is a shot from the early 1900s of Cornelia Commerdinger, my great-grandmother whom I had the opportunity to share a home with as she lived into her nineties. The Commerdinger name represents the spirit of her daughter, my grandmother Cynthia; a strong and uncompromising artist who lived life her own way during times when women were often compelled not to. She was a sharp individual who enjoyed a good cocktail and a nice meal. The Commerdingers are Cynthia’s decedents and her ancestors who lived during the Gilded Age, Progressive Era, and earlier.
About the Author
Alessandra Zinicola
Alessandra is a Ph.D. student who researches historical cookbooks and recipes. Though she began her education in culinary school, her graduate education is primarily in English and technical writing. She is an accomplished lyrical artist, writing words for several projects such as with the Utah Opera and Symphony, and was included in a music industry magazine's “world's top 10 unsigned artists”. Alessandra is a multi-time award-winning essayist and has won NIAF's Gift of Discovery cultural exchange tour of Italy. She has written internal articles for a fortune 100 company and teaches, writes, and speaks academically on topics of history, culinary arts, digital humanities, technical communication, gender, labor, domesticity, and home economics. In addition to her work on Commerdinger's Cocktails blog and book, she continues to write on historical cookery; her most recent publication is an article on early American cooking instructors published in DAR’s, American Spirit Magazine.