Wetaskiwin District Heritage Museum Centre & City of Wetaskiwin Archives

In the heat of the summer grabbing a cold, sweet treat is a popular option. This manual or hand crank ice cream maker serves as a marker of our love of frozen desserts. The history of ice cream is thought to go back to the second century B.C., but its exact origins remain unclear with no specific time periods or inventor accredited to its creation. Various versions of frozen desserts, such as flavored snow or sorbet, may be found in several accounts throughout the world. By the seventeenth century, however, “cream ice” appeared regularly at the table of Charles I. In 1843, Nancy Johnson patented the first hand-cranked ice cream maker like the one pictured here. The machine has a movable crank with a center paddle intended to churn the ice cream maker’s contents. Ice and rock salt are important components of slowly freezing an edible ice cream mixture. When refrigeration became common and the prices of formerly expensive ingredients like sugar and cream dropped, mass commercial production of ice cream drove the popularization of ice cream parlors. It is safe to say that ice cream is now one of our favorite frozen treats!