Small Home Gazette, Summer 2018

History Brief: A Cornucopia of Cool 

In the early 1900s, ice cream became an increasingly popular treat. Sold by street vendors, ice cream was typically served up in paper, glass or metal containers.

It was at the St. Louis World’s Fair on July 23, 1904, that the ice cream cone was created. Arnold Fornachou, an ice cream vendor, had trouble keeping up with the hot day’s demands and ran out of his paper serving cups. Nearby, Ernest Hamwi was selling zalabia (a wafer-thin, waffle-like confection sprinkled with sugar).

A woman and three children enjoy the new ice cream cones at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.

By rolling a warm zalabia into a shape to hold ice cream, Hamwi came up with the first edible ice cream cone. Ice cream vendors all over the fairgrounds began to purchase his wafers, calling them cornucopias.

At the close of the fair, the popularity of eating ice cream in a “cone” had industries racing to produce molds and machines to use for baking ice cream cones.