The portraits track Betty Crocker’s changing image through her years as the General Mills marketing icon.

Softasilk Cake Flour packaging, copyright ca. 1938. General Mills cake mixes used Softasilk Cake Flour. The flour addition caused their 1947 mix to be named “Ginger Cake,” not “Gingerbread.”

The front of Betty Crocker’s Pineapple Cake Mix. The box’s cake is decorated with light blue frosting and green and yellow candies. Collection of Tamaki Paenga Hira (Auckland War Memorial Museum), 2015.4.49. Gift of Mrs Yvonne Keesing.

Betty Crocker’s instructions on how to mix and bake a cake.

Although from 2010, the box features a Betty Crocker logo and design.

An ad for Colorvision cake includes a Betty Crocker baking quiz, suggestions, and bright graphics. Posted by Flickr user Classic Film, July 10, 2015.

This Colorvision cake ad appeared in a 1952 edition of Family Circle magazine. Posted by Flickr user Classic Film, June 8, 2015. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Morgan’s Mexican & Lebanese Foods at 736 Robert Street, St. Paul, November 1980.

Miners—many of them probably northern European immigrants—in the pit of the Soudan mine, Tower, 1890.