Doesn’t the American Antiquarian Society have a coal stove in its kitchen?

Thanks to Chris Bray at Cliopatria, I came upon a lovely story of an inter-generational bake-off at the American Antiquarian Society. They cooked two pound cakes in the kitchen there: one with an 1839 recipe and the other with one from 2005. This meant that:

One [volunteer cook] was willing to beat batter for an hour, the other trying to embrace modernity with an ill-advised immersion blender.

Yet despite this distinction it appears they still put both cakes in the same modern oven. The old recipe won, but I wonder if it was a fair fight without an 1839 stove for the old dessert. After all, why bother to mix it the old fashioned way if you don’t cook it that way too. That’s not meant as a criticism (as I love this kind of stuff), just an excuse to point out that cross-generational comparisons when doing food history can get REALLY complicated.