Gathering Ice Blocks For The Ice Box, Milwaukee, 1940s

6 year old boy getting ice blocks from Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Some families in the 1940s did not have a refrigerator: they used an ice box (insulated box with a block of ice at the bottom). In the spring and summer, the Ice Man would deliver blocks of ice in the morning. In the winter the children would take a wagon down to Lake Michigan to collect ice blocks themselves. Milk was stored in the interior house hallway all year round, outside of the ice box.

Ice deliveries across the USA continued until shortly after the end of WWII \u2013 late 1940s to the early 1950s. Once the war was over, metals that were banned from consumer use during the War were again being used in the making of refrigerators and other household appliances.

History: https://piedtype.com/2015/02/08/when-iceboxes-were-cool/