Ice Cream Vendor

Iced beverages and water ices, the ancestors of today's ice cream, were very popular in ancient times. Wines and fruit juices cooled with ice and snow were served at the court of the Roman emperor Nero in the first century A.D. Marco Polo brought recipes for water ices, which had been popular in Asia for centuries, from the Orient back to his native Italy in the thirteenth century. The art of making these ices spread from Italy to France, and then throughout Europe. In America, ice cream was introduced by the early English colonists in the 1600s. In the 1700s, ice cream parlors came into existence and enjoyed immediate popularity. The invention of a hand-cranked freezer in 1846 allowed ice cream to be produced at home. And when the continuous freezer was invented in 1925, ice cream-making was revolutionized, as previously only small batches could be produced. Since then, improved refrigeration and transportation methods have made ice cream widely available. The U.S. leads all other countries in the production and consumption of ice cream. Here, a Grant Park visitor enjoys some ice cream as well as the attention of the ice cream vendor.