"Why Cookbooks Matter": Discussion and Reception Hosted by UMass Libraries
The Friends of the UMass Amherst Libraries is holding its 10th Annual Fall Reception. The speakers will include cookbook collectors, curators, and donors.
The program will feature Marilyn Dunn M.A. ’90 and Barbara Wheaton of the Schlesinger Library Culinary Collection, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University; and Rob Cox and Melinda McIntosh of the Beatrice A. McIntosh Cookery Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries.
Marilyn Dunn is Executive Director of the Schlesinger Library and Librarian of the Radcliffe Institute. Barbara Wheaton is a food historian and honorary curator of the Schlesinger Library’s culinary collection.
The Schlesinger Library’s holdings of culinary works include over 15,000 titles spanning five centuries and global cuisines. Begun as a collection intended to document the domestic focus and contributions of women, the collection grew around a core of cookery books and has expanded to become an international collection covering culinary history, the culinary professions, gastronomy, the history of domestic life and management, and the role of food in history and culture. The collection includes the papers of several famous chefs and food writers such as M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Elizabeth David.
Rob Cox is Head of Special Collections and University Archives at the UMass Amherst Libraries. Melinda McIntosh is a Reference Librarian at UMass Amherst Libraries and a major donor to the Beatrice A. McIntosh Cookery Collection.
In 1997, the Beatrice A. McIntosh Cookery Collection consisted of 70 cookbooks and is now approaching 4,000. The collection includes books, pamphlets, and ephemera relating to the history of cookery in New England and beyond. Of particular note are over 1,000 cookbooks prepared by community organizations from the 1880s to the present, usually for charitable purposes. They were produced by a variety of organizations, including parent-teacher groups, churches and synagogues, social service agencies, private clubs, and historical societies as fundraising projects. The cookbooks document important aspects of the lives of families and women in the region, as well as ethnic groups and their adaptation of traditional foods to New England.
Melinda McIntosh began collecting cookbooks in 1997, when then head of Special Collections Linda Seidman put out a request for donations of community cookbooks from Western Massachusetts. McIntosh, an avid collector, started looking for cookbooks at flea markets and tag sales and found them very interesting sources of local history. The collection was later named after McIntosh’s mother, “…a great cook and a church lady, who was cooking in an era when many of these books [were used].”
As part of the program, Rachel Fletcher of the Friends of Du Bois Homesite in Great Barrington, Massachusetts will be honored with the 2008 Siegfried Feller Award for Outstanding Service. This award, established in 1998, is given annually to individuals who have made outstanding volunteer contributions to create awareness and build support for the UMass Amherst Libraries.
Rachel Fletcher will be recognized for her work and as a founding member of the UMass Amherst W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee. Fletcher is a member of the Friends of the Du Bois Boyhood Homesite, co-director of the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail, trustee of the Great Barrington Land Conservancy, and trustee of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area. Thanks to Fletcher’s dedication and collaborative efforts, the Du Bois Boyhood Homesite, under the custodianship of UMass Amherst, is poised to become a regional, national, and international tourist destination and an enduring memorial to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Du Bois.
More information about the Schlesinger Library.
More information about the Beatrice A. McIntosh Cookery Collection
RSVPs are requested (but not required) by September 26, to Susan McBride at (413) 545-3974 or friends@library.umass.edu.
UMass Catering will provide refreshments.
Open to the public.
