• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Our history archive

Our History

Documenting world history and civil rights

General

  • About
  • Cookies and your privacy
  • Privacy policy
  • Contact

Categories

  • Home
  • Colonisation
  • World History
  • Civil Rights
  • World cultures
  • Features
  • Wellbeing
  • Popular Culture
  • Home
  • Colonisation
  • World History
  • Civil Rights
  • World cultures
  • Features
  • Wellbeing
  • Popular Culture

George Crum

Features
21 October, 2007

The potato chip (aka crisps) was invented in 1853 by George Crum. The son of an African-American father and a Native American mother, Crum was a  chef at the Moon Lake Lodge resort in Saratoga Springs, New York, USA.

French fries were popular at the restaurant and one day a diner complained that the fries were too thick. Although Crum made a thinner batch, the customer was still unsatisfied. Crum finally made fries that were too thin to eat with a fork, hoping to annoy the extremely fussy customer. The customer, surprisingly enough, was happy – and potato chips were invented!

Years later, Crum opened his own restaurant that had a basket of potato chips on every table. Though Crum never attempted to patent his invention, the snack was eventually mass-produced and sold in bags.




George Crum died on 22 July 1914.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp

Related

You May Also Like…

Black History Month: Standing in Power and Pride 2025

Standing firm in power and pride: Eight Black people who shaped history

Official portrait of Captain James Cook

Captain James Cook: Master navigator and Pacific explorer

Phyllis Coard: Architect of women's liberation in revolutionary Grenada

Phyllis Coard: Architect of women’s liberation in revolutionary Grenada

Statue of Yaa Asantewaa

The history of Nana Yaa Asantewaa: The lion-hearted queen mother




Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tom Furness

    20 April, 2016 at 11:39 am

    this guy is a living legend

    Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

Sidebar

This Day In History

Events in History
On this day in 1955 Mother of Caribbean Carnival, Claudia Jones is deported to Britain from America.
Person
On this day in 2023 Writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah died aged 65.
Black History Month: Standing in Power and Pride 2025

Standing firm in power and pride: Eight Black people who shaped history

Official portrait of Captain James Cook

Captain James Cook: Master navigator and Pacific explorer

Phyllis Coard: Architect of women's liberation in revolutionary Grenada

Phyllis Coard: Architect of women’s liberation in revolutionary Grenada

Trending

  • Holy Wars: The blood-soaked legacy of conflicts fought in the name of Christianity
    Holy Wars: The blood-soaked legacy of conflicts fought in the name of Christianity
  • Understanding Sharia Law: Principles, practice, and global context
    Understanding Sharia Law: Principles, practice, and global context
  • This John Hanson was not the first Black President of the United States
    This John Hanson was not the first Black President of the United States
  • The Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962
    The Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962
  • The Birth of the National Health Service: A revolutionary moment in British history
    The Birth of the National Health Service: A revolutionary moment in British history
  • The rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire: Six centuries of imperial power
    The rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire: Six centuries of imperial power
  • What are British values?
    What are British values?
  • British Slave-ownership database - See who benefited from slavery
    British Slave-ownership database - See who benefited from slavery
  • Adolf Hitler: Rise and fall
    Adolf Hitler: Rise and fall
  • Multicultural London English: Evolution from cockney to a global linguistic mosaic
    Multicultural London English: Evolution from cockney to a global linguistic mosaic

Connect

  • YouTube
  • TikTok
  • Bluesky
  • About
  • Cookies and your privacy
  • Privacy policy
  • Contact

Copyright © 2025 · Our History · All Rights Reserved