19th century American Cookbooks

In the 18th century and first decades of the 19th century, American cookbooks were either British reprints or heavily-fashioned to English tastes. The works of Mrs. Rundell, Hannah Glasse, Frederick Nutt and Dr. William Kitchner, for example, are well represented in the collection.

By the mid-19th century a new cookery based on American tastes and food was promoted by Lydia Child, Sarah Hale, Eliza Leslie, and Catherine Beecher. Their books were enormously popular reaching literally millions of American households with food recipes and admonitions to lead clean, healthy, and well-ordered lives.

In the late 19th century American cookery continued to be popular with the work of the Boston Cooking School and its most famous pupil, Fannie Farmer. The Cookery Collection’s greatest strength is probably its 19th century American holdings. All the major cookbook authors are well represented with their works in a number of different editions.