When Frederick Tudor, a wealthy Bostonian, landed on the idea to sell chunks of ice carved from his Massachusetts lake to people living in warm climates, he transformed the way humans thought about and used ice. Before he launched the ice trade in 1806, those who lived in southern territories rarely saw ice naturally.
Before blocks of the stuff could be shipped from New England, it had to be stored in elaborate ice houses. These were deep wells dug into the ground so they could maintain a temperature of 55 degrees and hold ice year-round. To amp up demand, Tudor gave ice away to local bartenders, who then offered it to their customers for free. Once they returned, he started selling the ice for a healthy profit.
Journalist and historian Amy Brady became interested in ice while visiting family in Topeka, Kansas during a heat wave. Photo by Cate Barry Photography.
Charles W. Morse, originally from Maine and living in New York at the end of the 19th century, was another ice king. He bought and consolidated several businesses to create the American Ice Company, eventually becoming the world's largest producer of ice. Morse would hike the price of ice and blame the environment on availability.
During a 1896 heat wave, 1,300 New Yorkers died. That number would've been higher if the city's police commissioner hadn't ordered hundreds of truckloads of ice to be delivered to the poorest neighborhoods. Five years later, Theodore Roosevelt would become president of the United States of America. Many of those who received ice on his orders became devoted supporters of his campaign.
In her book Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks — A Cool History of a Hot Commodity, Amy Brady details these stories and others, including a wave of songs related to the edgy reputation of ice delivery men.
Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks — A Cool History of a Hot Commodity delves into the 200-year-old history of America's obsession with the frozen cube. Photo courtesy of G.P. Putnam's Sons.