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Edwin Thomas Hughes (born February 12, 1945) is an American educator, author and food historian best known as the co-founder, with his wife Meredith Sayles Hughes, of The Potato Museum and The Food Museum Online.

Tom was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in nearby Haddonfield, New Jersey graduating from Haddonfield Memorial High School where he was Student Council President. At Syracuse University he studied political science and art history. He met his future wife, Meredith Sayles, while both were studying in Florence, Italy their Junior year. Tom dropped out of law school, volunteering for the United States Peace Corps where he taught high school in Zabol, Iran in 1968-69. Meredith and Tom were married in Tehran before returning to the US where he earned a Masters in Education from City College of New York.

The couple moved to Brussels, Belgium in 1973 where Tom taught fifth grade at the International School of Brussels. Returning to the states in 1981, he taught upper elementary level classes at The Potomac School in McLean Virginia, Manzano Day School in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Potato Museum

While teaching at The International School of Brussels, Tom created a multi-disciplinary project about the history and social influence of the potato with his fifth grade students. Tom left teaching to develop “The Potato Museum” project full time with a mission to research, collect, preserve, exhibit and explain the history and social significance of the potato. His pursuit of the potato has involved travels to all parts of the world. An experienced presenter and lecturer, Tom’s educational programs always include hands-on examination of a variety of artifacts from his collections. With Meredith, Tom curated exhibitions of the potato collection at the Smithsonian Institution’ “Seeds of Change,” the United States Botanic Garden’s “Spuds Unearthed!” both in Washington, DC, and “The Amazing Potato” at the Canada Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa.

Author/Writer

A travel columnist for the Brussels weekly magazine The Bulletin, in the late 1970s, writing under the pseudonym of Henry Harbour, Tom is the author of twelve travel and food history themed books.

Praise/Kudos

“The Potato Museum is of the modern type, which cuts across academic frontiers; it’s an enthusiast’s museum and our hard, cold, cynical world desperately needs enthusiasm.”

—-Kenneth Hudson, author of “Museums of Influence.”

“The most important issue confronting the human race is how we are going to preserve the quality of the environment and still feed the rapidly growing population into the next millennium. The Potato Museum provides a vehicle to get the message across.”

—Dr. John Niederhauser, 1990 World Food Prize Laureate

“A museum that gives sustenance the kind of attention museums give to wars, airplanes, human tragedy and the like.” —-Christian Science Monitor, February 2, 1992

“The Potato Museum….that idiosyncratic and deadly serious institution.” —-New York Times, August 27, 1985

Bibliography

The Potato Museum in a Book: Best Plant on the Planet and Off, Eats Publishing, 2020

Before We Eat, Food is Gathered, Grown, Processed and Exchanged: Humanity’s Food Heritage Sites, Pandemics and The Future of Food, Eats Publishing, 2020

Bays and Delta: exploring Food Historic Sites around the California Delta, Monterey and San Francisco Bays, Eats Publishing, 2018

Bula, Kia Ora, Cheers, Santi, Gānbēi; Exploring Food Historic Sites in Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Bali and Hong Kong, Eats Publishing, 2018

Anchovy to Zabaione: Food Museums Real and Imagined, Eats Publishing, 2018

Your Food Memories Matter: Pursuing Personal Food Histories Can Lead to Healthier Families and More Sustainable Communities, Eats Publishing, 2018

Potato Heads: Their Illustrated History, Eats Publishing, 2017

Food Heritage Matters: How We Ate and Will Eat, Eats Publishing, 2017

Eats History: Cooking with Fire to Heating Up Pizza, Eats Publishing, 2017

Hot Potato Capital of the World: Washington, DC Nickname Campaign, Eats Publishing, 2015

Eats Pinellas (Florida): Food History and Heritage Sites Tour, Eats Publishing, 2015

Eats Haddonfield (New Jersey): a Tour of Food Heritage Sites, Eats Publishing, 2014

Collaborated with Meredith Sayles Hughes

Gastronomie! Food Museums and Heritage Sites of France, Bunker Hill Publishing, 2005

Buried Treasure: Roots and Tubers, Lerner Publishing Group, 1998

The Great Potato Book, Atheneum, 1986

Book with Gulliver Hughes

Alleys of Washington, DC: a Hidden City’s Past, Present and Future, Eats Publishing, 2019

References

Listen to Tom and Meredith Hughes’ National Public Radio interview about The Potato Museum and the International Year of the Potato, 2008 (Click “All Things Potato”)


 * 1) KeeperoftheDay – The Potato Museum, “the first museum about a vegetable.”

“Tom Hughes and his wife, Meredith Sayles Hughes, are the couple behind the world’s first Potato Museum, the Food Museum Online, and the Food Heritage Center. The museums research, collect, preserve, exhibit and explain the history and social significance of the world’s foods, and bring artifacts and programs to audiences of all ages.”



Tip of the Tongue Podcast 94: “The Future of the Potato Museum Collection”

Meredith and Tom Hughes have been collecting potato-related artifacts since the 1970s. They have exhibited, taught, programmed, and written about the potato and its cultural and social importance. Their story parallels the development of food studies as an academic discipline, the great public interest in food, and the desire to make food history and culture public.



Interview with Meredith and Tom Hughes for Smithsonian Magazine Online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBUN38PM76I

Tom Hughes, Potato Museum Curator, on Late Night with David Letterman, February 15, 1982



Ruth Richman, "Potato Museum Seeks a New Home", The New York Times, November 22, 1989. 

"The Museum of Second Helpings", The Washington Post, November 24, 1989 – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).

https://www.proquest.com/docview/139902878/fulltextPDF/97E62EF072D844B5PQ/1?accountid=189667

SE Museum Displays Great Works of Starch, Wes Hanson, The Washington Post, June 4, 1987

Sara Lowen, "This spud's for you at a-peeling Potato Museum", Chicago Sun-Times, February 7, 1988 – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).

Clara Germani, " Spotlight on the Lowly Spud: Worldwide odyssey awakened couple to the food's historic role - and led to Potato Museum", The Christian Science Monitor, February 27, 1992. < https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0227/27141.html>

"Hot!Media: Future of Food", Mother Jones, March-April 1997, pp. 71, 73.

Abby Wihl, "Virtual museum gives food its due", Scripps Howard News Service in Daily Herald, October 23, 2007.