A real deep freeze

Among the many interesting aspects of working at the 71-year-old institution that is Consumer Reports is the opportunity to tap into our rich archives. When I’m scanning past issues to see how we covered a story related to one I’m editing or when I’m researching photographs in our InfoCenter, I’ll often spend a few minutes admiring the vintage black-and-whites that appeared in the magazine. As you can see in our book, Consumer Reports Images of America, the images capture a moment in time and tell stories about not only the products but also about our society.

For instance, many of the technicians and engineers in our testing photographs from the 1940s and into the 1960s were wearing dress shirts and ties under their lab coats. Let’s just say that today the attire in our headquarters is a bit more casual than it used to be. (And I’m happy about that.) As for the appliances that have long been featured on our pages, one can’t help but notice how the plain while boxes have morphed into gleaming high-tech machines.

One cool (pardon the pun) photo I came across recently is this shot from our April 1952 report on freezers. "The advent of the home freezer appears to be bringing about what amounts to a revolution in the housekeeping habits of American families who own them," is some of the news that emerged from that story. The photo shows the Kelvinator FR-63, which raised a couple of concerns: The poorly counterbalanced lid needed to be propped open so it wouldn’t slam down on someone using the freezer, and the design and depth of the unit made it hard to reach items.

If you’d like to see more vintage photos from Consumer Reports, drop me a line.—Steven H. Saltzman