Sarah Elvins

• HIST 2230 - History of the United States from 1607
• HIST 3110 - American Food Histories

I am a scholar of U.S. history, exploring different aspects of American culture and business. My research has explored the history of retailing, urban experiments with alternative currency, cross-border shopping and food history. 

• PhD (American History), York University, 2001
• MA (American History), York University, 1994
• BA (Honours), Queen's University, 1993

Research interests

• History of retailing, marketing, and consumption
• Food history
• Urban history
• American popular culture
• Business history

Books

• "Sales and Celebrations: Retailing and Regional Identity in Western New York State, 1920-1940" (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2004).

Peer-reviewed articles and chapters

• “Shopping: Practices and Processes,” in A Cultural History of Shopping in the Modern Age, edited by Vicki Howard, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
• “‘A Stairway that Does Its Own Climbing’: The Department Store Escalator and the Promises of Modernity, 1900-1950,” History of Retailing and Consumption, 7:1 (October 2021): 79-97. 
• “Lady Smugglers and Lynx-Eyed Customs Agents: Gender, Consumption and Cross-Border Shopping in Detroit and Windsor,” Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 101 no. 4 (December 2020): 497-521.
• “The History of the Department Store,” in The Routledge Companion to the History of Retailing, edited by Jon Stobart and Vicki Howard, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2019: 136-153.
• “Making Money in Hard Times: Scrip and Grassroots Efforts to Solve the Great Depression,” in Shopping for Change: Consumer Activism in North American History, edited by Joseph Tohill and Louis Hyman. Ithaca: Cornell University Press and Toronto: Between the Lines Press, 2017.
• “‘A river of money flowing south’: cross-border shopping in North Dakota and the insatiable Canadian desire for American goods, 1900-2001,” History of Retailing and Consumption, 1: 3 (2015), 230-245, DOI: 10.1080/2373518X.2015.1134256.
• “Scrip, Stores, and Cash-Strapped Cities: American Retailers and Alternative Currency during the Great Depression,” Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 2 no. 1 (2010): 86-107.

Other publications

• “A guide from the past on traveling to get an abortion: As in the era before Roe, Canada may be a good abortion destination for Americans,” Washington Post, June 27, 2022.
• “Gentlemen Prefer Pie When the Cook is a Blonde: The Early History of the Pillsbury Bake-Off,” Repast: the Quarterly Newsletter of the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor, Vol. XXXV, No. 2 (Spring 2019) 4-7, 19.

• 2021 - Article “Lady Smugglers and Lynx-Eyed Customs Agents” a co-recipient of the inaugural prize for Best Article in Canadian Business History by the Canadian Business History Association
• 2019 - University of Manitoba Faculty Association Merit Award in Teaching
• 2004 - Outstanding Achievement Award, Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba
• 2002 - Book manuscript Sales and Celebrations awarded the GLASA (Great Lakes American Studies Association) – Ohio University Press Book Award

I have given public lectures on American history at a range of institutions including branches of the Winnipeg Public Library, the Rady Jewish Community Centre, Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre, Winnipeg Art Gallery and McNally Robinson Booksellers. I have been interviewed by the Winnipeg Free Press and on CBC radio on topics including the history of abortion, shopping malls and food.