Historic Cookbooks

One of my talks, "Cooking by the Book," features a number of historical cookbooks, many of which are unknown to modern readers and cooks. I've decided to share a few select favorites here. All of the below links go directly to the full text of the original. 

• American Cookery by Amelia Simmons (1798)
• A Treatise on the Adulteration of Food by Frederick Accum (1820)
• The Virginia House-Wife; or The Methodical Cook by Mary Randolph (1824)
• American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Child (1829, 1832, 1838)
• The Kentucky Housewife by Lettice Bryan (1839)
• The Good Housekeeper by Sarah Josepha Hale (1839)
• Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book by Catharine Beecher (1842) 
• The New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book by Esther Howland (1845)
• House and Home; Or, The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge (1847, 1855)
• The Great Western Table Book; or, Table Receipts, Adapted to Western Housewifery by Anna Maria Collins (1851)
• The Appledore Cookbook by Maria Parloa (1872, 1881)
• Camp Cookery: How to Live In Camp by Maria Parloa (1878)
• Miss Parloa's New Cook Book by Maria Parloa (1882)
• Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book : what to do and what not to do in cooking by Mary J. Lincoln (1884)
• New salads for dinners, luncheons, suppers and receptions by Sarah Tyson Rorer (1897)
• Mrs. Rorer's new cook book : a manual of housekeeping by Sarah Tyson Rorer (1902)
• The Boston Cooking School Cook-Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer (1896)
• more to come!​

Cookbook Libraries, Archives, and Other Holding Institutions

The following digital archives and repositories are presented in no particular order:

Cookbook collection, Chapin Library, Williams College. Read the intro to the collection.

Manuscript Cookbooks Survey

Szathmary Culinary Manuscripts and Cookbooks, University of Iowa Library
​
Szathmary Recipe Pamphlet Digital Collection, University of Iowa Library. 

Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920, Duke University Libraries
- - - Nicole Di Bona Peterson Collection of Advertising Cookbooks, Duke University Library

Doris S. Kirschner Cookbook Collection, University of Minnesota

Service Through Sponge Cake, a collaboration between University of Indiana Library and Indianapolis Public Library

Historical Cookbooks, Texas Tech University Library

HISTORY OF FOOD & DRINK COLLECTION RARE BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS, Virginia Tech

Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project, Michigan State University Library

What America Ate: Preserving America's Culinary History from the Great Depression

---