The following answer to the question "Where did marshmallows come from?" is FAQ number nine on the [alt.food.peeps] Peeps FAQ maintained by Annie.

http://faqs.org/faqs/food/candy/peeps/preamble.html

"Marshmallow candy dates back to ancient Egypt where it was a honey-based candy flavored and thickened with the sap of the root of the Marsh-Mallow plant (althea officinalis). Marsh-Mallow grows in salt marshes and on banks near large bodies of water. It is common in the eastern United States. Until the mid 1800's, marshmallow candy was made using the sap of the Marsh-Mallow plant. Gelatin replaces the sap in the modern recipes."

Extract from:
Viable Herbal Solutions
Marshmallow
http://www.metromkt.net/viable/1marshma.shtml

"Nineteenth century doctors extracted juice from the marsh mallow plant's roots and cooked it with egg whites and sugar, then whipped the mixture into a foamy meringue that later hardened, creating a medicinal candy used to soothe children's sore throats. Eventually, advanced manufacturing processes and improved texturing agents eliminated the need for the gooey root juice altogether. Unfortunately, that eliminated the confection's healing properties as a cough suppressant, immune system booster and wound healer."

"The candy makers needed to find a new, faster way of making marshmallows. As a result, the "starch mogul" system was developed in the late 1800s. Rather than making marshmallows by hand, the new system let candy makers create marshmallows in molds made of modified cornstarch (like jelly beans, gummies and candy corn are made today). At about the same time, mallow root was replaced by gelatin, providing marshmallows with their "stable" form...

...In 1948, Alex Doumak, a marshmallow manufacturer, began experimenting with different methods of marshmallow making. Doumak was looking for ways to speed up production and discovered the "extrusion process", which revolutionized marshmallow production. Now, marshmallows can be made by piping the fluffy mixture through long tubes and cutting its tubular shape into equal pieces. "

Marshmallow Peeps
Marshmallow Peeps
From the official website of Marshmallow Peeps come this exciting history of Marshmallow Peeps.

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Marshmallow Fluff
Plenty of Substance in Marshmallow Fluff History
People have been known to eat it straight from the jar, but it's been put to use more often in a marshmallow fudge named for Mamie Eisenhower (alternatively called Never-Fail Fudge), or in a sandwich fit for a king (if you're Elvis, that is) called the Fluffernutter.

According to The History of Fluff:
http://www.ohio.com/bj/features/2000/November/08/docs/009698.htm?1c 

"In the early 1900s, Archibald Query of Somerville made the first Fluff in his kitchen and sold it door to door. However, due to the sugar shortages of World War I, Query was not successful. He sold the secret Fluff formula to two enterprising confectioners, H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower, for $500. These two renamed their product "Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff" and in 1920 made their first sale of three gallons of Fluff to a vacation lodge in New Hampshire. The price was a dollar a gallon."

The History of Marshmallow Fluff
This history is similar to the one above except it forgets about Archibald Query.

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