Freezers and Freezing: Electric Refrigerators and Freezers

Electric refrigerators had been marketed since the 1890s, but none was successful until the Guardian Frigerator Company manufactured the Frigidaire in 1916. The company was purchased by General Motors Corporation, which began to mass-produce refrigerators, promoting them through national advertising and wide distribution. The small freezer section of the Frigidaire held ice trays and had room for little else. Only five thousand electric refrigerators were sold in America in 1921. It was not until 1930 that refrigerators outsold iceboxes. In 1940 more than 4 million refrigerators were sold. The size of the freezer section of refrigerators steadily increased as commercial frozen foods became common.