Measure for measure

Library's community cookbook collection
serves up local and culinary history

By Sam Seaver, Chronicle staff

Recent additions to the Regional Community Cookbooks Collection include selections from (top to bottom) the North Quabbin area, Bay Path Junior College in Longmeadow and the nursing honor society at Worcester State College. (Stan Sherer photos)

ocal history buffs and chefs alike have a growing resource to draw from in the Special Collections and Archives charitable cookbook collection, which recently celebrated its fifth year and contains more than 400 cookbooks.

     The collection, which features cookbooks of churches, women's groups and garden clubs primarily from Western Massachusetts, was started by then head of Special Collections and Archives Linda Seidman in 1998. Most of the collection is a result of private donations from area organizations and residents who wish to contribute to local history.

     As public awareness of the collection has grown, donations have steadily increased.
Du Bois Library technical archivist Melissa Watterworth said donations peak in the summer months when people are more likely to attend tag sales and book fairs.

     Charitable cookbook publication began shortly after the Civil War as a way to aid orphans, widows and war veterans. Publication grew substantially after World War I as volunteer networks formalized. In addition, national food-related companies published small-pamphlet promotional cookbooks and helped to fund charity cookbooks by advertising in them. The growth in publications by cooking schools in the early 20th century provided models for charitable cookbooks to follow.

     The collection spans the period from the late 19th century -- with books such as "Choice Recipes" by the Ladies of Baldwinville in 1886 and "Tried and True" by Turners Falls' Ladies of the Unitarian Society in 1888 -- through 2001 publications like "Star Spangled Recipes" by the American Legion Auxiliary of Vineyard Haven.

     "Our cookbook collection is a valuable resource for tracing history and heritage through recipes, menus and food production," Watterworth said. "Researchers increasingly have been using the collection in conjunction with family papers, community organization papers and old business ledgers as a way to compare how ethnic groups adapted to and influenced local communities."

     A wide variety of ethnicities, including Polish, Russian, French Canadian, Latin American and Jewish groups, are represented in the collection. Items in the collection also are used to observe how women participated in carrying on family and ethnic traditions, Watterworth said.

     Some scholars use the collection alongside business ledgers and account books of general stores and farmers in order to show who was purchasing goods and what they were using the items to produce, Watterworth said.

     Visiting lecturer Claire Hopley used the cookbook collection during winter session in her Continuing Education class, "Writing About Food for Fun and Reward."

     "I took the students to use the community cookbook collection partly to introduce it as one of the many food resources in the library," she said.

     "The students wrote a paper that included some element of food history, and older community cookbooks are a good source of information about what people really were cooking in years gone by.

     "One thing the students realized from looking at these old books was that old family recipes can be significant. In writing their paper on a personal food memory, many wrote about grandmothers' or aunts' recipes that they wished they had."

     The collection contains many unusual recipes including one for "Longmeadow Loaf Cake," flavored with nutmeg, brandy and raisins, featured in "Longmeadow Cookbook," published at an unknown date. Others include ethnic recipes, such as "Polish Lasagna," a layered dish made with cabbage, ground beef, rice, and onions, featured in a 1970 Holyoke publication by Saint Peters Lutheran Church entitled "Heirloom Recipes."

     Ethnic food ways are exemplified by a Russian Orthodox recipe for "Kasha," an Eastern European staple made with buckwheat groats, featured in a 1975 Springfield publication by the Saints Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church. Local food ways also are preserved, as in a recipe from Enfield, a town that was claimed by the Quabbin Reservoir project, for "Poor Man's Pudding," made with rice, eggs, raisins, sugar, salt and lemon juice.

     The books contain much more than recipes. Many include family histories and original artwork, most notably a cover drawing by Norman Rockwell, as well as poetry, short stories, women's advice and early local advertising. One contains an ad for Manhan's Potato Chip Company of Northampton.

     The Regional Community Cookbooks Collection is not available for browsing by the public; however, patrons interested in the books for research or recipe collection can make appointments to view several at a time in Special Collections and Archives by selecting them in advance from an online list (www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/ckbk.html). The service is available Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.