Technologizing the home: Mary Pennington and the rise of domestic food refrigeration

The idea that women should help to engineer products they will use is still radical enough to be controversial today. In the 1920s, food refrigeration engineer Mary Engle Pennington played a critical role in the development of home refrigeration in the USA. Pennington was a Quaker who talked about her efforts with the rhetoric of a missionary as she proclaimed the gospel of high-quality refrigeration. In this paper, I show how Pennington's concept of engineering as a high calling to public service motivated her work for the National Association of Ice Industries. The story of Pennington's efforts to educate both the ice industry and the public about scientifically sound domestic food refrigeration addresses questions about the moral obligations of a consultant to her clients, the way an engineer's personal views can affect her public activities, and the role of women in engineering fields that primarily serve women.