Working with the History of Food & Drink Collection for the last few years has helped me build up an interest in advertising. Since 2011, we’ve been acquiring materials for our Culinary Pamphlet Collection, which contains hundreds of pamphlets, booklets, and cards/card sets. Much of the collection consists of small recipes books that consumers would either have sent away for or received free, full of recipes that use a product or products and aimed at encouraging future purchasing. In 2013, we started building the Culinary Ephemera Collection, which contains things likelabels, broadsides, trade cards, puzzles, menus, and postcards. There are lots of great bites of culinary ephemera–just the kind of items you’ll find me blogging about on “What’s Cookin’ @Special Collections?!” It’s through food and food advertising history that I first got into trade cards, but that’s not the only place you’ll find them.
Which brings us toCoade’s Lithodipyra or Artificial Manufactory Trade Card:
This collection is among what we call our “1-folder collections.” The entire collection, in this case, consists of the single trade card, probably printed around 1784. But, there’s a great deal of history to even a single small piece of paper. (In other words, don’t let the size of a collection fool you!)
The image is believed to have been one carved above the door at the factory. The woman whose belt is labeled “Ignea Vis” (or, “Firey Force”) appears to be overpowering a winged figure, who has both a tail and a trumpet, but we have no other clue to who or what he represents. The text reads:
Coade’s Lithodipyra or Artificial Stone Manufactory For all kind of Statues, Capitals, Vases, Tombs, Coats of Arms & Architectural ornaments &c &c; particularly expressed in Catalogues, & Books of Prints of 800 Articles & upwards, Sold at ye Manufactory near Kings Arms Stairs, Narrow Wall Lambeth, opposite Whitehall Stairs, London
The Latin above the three women reads, “nec edax abolere vestusas.” This is most likely the second half of the second of two lines from Ovid’sMetamorphosis:Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis/nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas. Of, if you prefer: “And now my work is done, which neither the anger of Jupiter, nor fire,/nor sword, nor the gnawing tooth of time shall ever be able todestroy.” It seems an obvious advertising suggestion at the timelessness of the artificial stone manufactured by the company. Which brings us toCoade’s Lithodipyra or Artificial Stone Manufactory.
Coade’s was a company run by Eleanor Coade (1733-1821). Her first business was as a linen-draper, but she eventually shifted to making artificial stone, referred to as “Coade stone.” (Seeing a woman run any sort of business at time is only one of the reasons the trade card is such a stand-out item!) She ran the company from 1769 until her death in 1821, at which point her last business partner, William Croggon, continued the business until 1833. Coade produced stone for famous architects of the time, including John Nash. Nash’s works using the stone included the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, andthe refurbishment of Buckingham Palace in the 1820s. Other sites using the stone wereSt. George’s Chapel, Windsor and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
You can see the finding aid for the collection online. It offers a little more context to the trade card (designed by sculptor John Bacon, who studied at the Royal Academy). A trade card often seems like a simple thing, without much to do, other than advertise a company–but that isn’t usually the case. There’s a great deal of thought as to what goes into the design, what effect it might have, and what its real intention is. Certainly, Bacon probably thinking of this as a work of art, nor was Coade expecting it to last 231 and find its way to our collections, but it really is a work of art and it still has value over two centuries later. What that value is…well, art is in the eye of the beholder, just like research value. It’s up to you and me to figure out what this small, but not insignificant collection can mean.
This week, I though we might peel back another layer of Special Collections and peek behind the curtain again. It seems like a good follow up on the heels of my colleague John’s post last week. He described a particular collection and included lots on information on the collection’s creators, Joseph P. and Margaret James. So, today, I thought I’d write about the people in our collections–more specifically, how we go about putting them in context.
J. Hoge Tyler, Virginia governor from 1898 to 1902 (more on him in a moment!)
First, a noteon finding aids. If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ve inevitably seen a link somewhere to a finding aid. Hopefully, you’re curious and you’ve followed one of those links and seen one of our finding aids online (we have nearly1,800 online and new ones in progress all the time). If you haven’t looked at one before, you might want to right now. Here are a few of my favorites (and no, they aren’t just ones I’ve written)…Who I am kidding, they are all my favorites! But here are a few examples:
If you took a look, you’ll notice they have some things in common (mostly the elements that appear in them and to some extent, the structure), but just as much, if not more, is different. The Tyler family collection has a long, detailed, highly structured list of contents. The Pettersen collection has a large project list that’s available as a separate spreadsheet–that spreadsheet was a much better way to convey what the collection contained, given the variety of types of materials. The Tippett letterhas a much shorter description, since the entire collection is only one item. And the receipt book is a great example of a collection where we don’t have much information at all, other than the collection itself. There are a lot of things I could say about finding aids, but we’ll save some of it for future posts. Today is about that lovely “Biographical Information” section.
Biographical notes in finding aids are there to (hopefully) provide context and background on the people who created and/or are the subjects of a collection. Seems straight-forward enough, right? Part of the job of our archivists is to help provide that context. And it can come from many places.Sometimes, the collection itself is a rich source of information. It could contain biographical files, CVs or resumes, or secondary research completed by someone else.
This is only a portion of the J. Hoge Tyler Family Collection biographical note. Because the collection documents several generations of family members, it’s extensive. Information in the note comes from the collection (you learn a LOT about people by processing their papers), but also from published sources. Since Tyler was a governor of Virginia, there’s no shortage of published biographical informationon him. We have books in our Rare Book Collection that often support us doing research on people connected to the local area, Virginia history, and other subjects in which we specialize, like the Civil War.
William Tippett’s biography issignificantly shorter for a couple of reasons. First, the collection is smaller. It’s not always an even ratio between size of collection and length of the biographical note (more on that in a bit), but it can be factor. It’s easy to get caught up trying to unravel the threads of someone’s life story and I am a sucker for it, but at the same time, we have lots of collections needing our attention. Our goal is provide you, the researcher, with some sort of context. Second, William Tippett’s collection contains a letter from his service in the Civil War and the best information we had available at the time related to his military history, so the biographical note reflects that. That’s not to say you wouldn’t find more about William Tippett in many places (I’m certain you could), but this particular note reflects the letter’s contents. In this case, we used a regimental history of the 1st West Virginia Infantry, located in our stacks, to write the note. Then, there’s something like the Hertford Receipt Book:
Although the receipt book includes several names, as you can see, they aren’t very thorough and don’t leave even the best archivist (or researcher!) a lot to go on. The other catch with this particular collection is that it’s from England and we have far fewer British genealogy resources available (or at least had, in 2008 when the collection was processed).
All that being said, if you’re interested in doing genealogy research on your own, there are endless resources out there and it would take more posts than I’d have time to write in a year. However, your local academic and public libraries probably some tools to get you started. Last year, the University Libraries acquired a subscription to Ancestry Library Edition, which is a collection of more than 4,000 databases and 1.5 billion names. It contains census, birth, death, military, and marriage records, as well as digitized yearbook collections, immigration information, maps, genealogy indexes, and more. And that’s only for the U. S. materials. Ancestry also contains records relating to Canada and the U. K. Lots of other libraries subscribe, too, so it never hurts to ask.
If you have a library card for the Montgomery-Floyd RegionalLibrary, you have access to something called Heritage Quest, which is a database that includes census records and indices. You can check out Heritage Quest, and some of their other genealogy resources online. If you’re part of a different public library system, ask them! Librarians have access to lots of cool resources.
The first page of William Tippett’s 1864 letter. I’ve written about it on our History of Food and Drink blog previously. You can read the post online (https://whatscookinvt.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/william-tippett-letter/) and see the whole letter with transcripts on our Omeka site (https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/items/show/2827).
And, of course, Special Collections is here to help, too. If you want to visit us to do some research, we have a guide you started:Local History and Genealogical Research in the University Libraries. This will tell you about some of the resources available at Newman Library and in Special Collections specifically. The guide is adapted from a print resource and we’ve done our best to update it, but if you run into something odd, give us a shout. You can also always check out the library’s catalog and our finding aids. You might be surprised at just where you can find connections to your family’s past. Plus, it might give you a little more insight into the kind of work that archivists do everyday.
In the 1830s, a new trend began in publishing (a “novel” idea, if you will!): Novels started to appear in newsstands. But rather than publishing in a large, cumbersome form that one couldn’t carry easily, they were issued in small, portable, serialized segments. Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers was the first to appear this way in print, but he wouldn’t be the last author to try it (a bit more on that in a moment). For authors AND audiences, this format had a number of advantages. For authors, it meant they could begin to sell a story before it was completed, that they didn’t actually have to have everything plotted out, and they had a little more time to write. For audiences, it meant following a story as it unfolded (rather than waiting for a full novel), a more dramatic reading experience that was drawn out by having to wait, talk with people, and guess, and easier to access the literature of the era. Novels were expensive, but a single serial volume could be purchased for a shilling and passed from person to person. Of course, this does mean the volumes were ephemeral, on cheap paper, and not meant to last. Lucky for us, some of them survived. Special Collections is home to a number of serialized novels, either in complete or mostly complete form.
The first of two we’re sharing today is Charles Dicken’sBleak House, originally published in 20 parts (though two are combined, so it’s only 19 volumes) between 1952-1953. (Due to the fragile nature of the publications and the bulky nature of their housing, I had to photograph, rather than scan these items. Apologies for the occasionally blurry quality and/or fingertips!)
Bleak House serial set in a custom case.
Front cover of volume I.
Advertisements from olume I of Bleak House. Dickens’ volumes in particular featured ads for other Dickens novels, as well as for items you might expect useful in England, like rain coats!
Each volume of Bleak House features two illustrations at the front, like these from volume I
First page of volume I from Bleak House.
The second example is William Thackeray’sThe Virginians, published in24 parts between November 1857 to October 1859.
Custom case for Thackeray’s The Virginians.
Case and volumes of The Virginians
Volume I, with cover illustration, of The Virginians. Thackarey’s novel featured his own illustrations.
Other than the obvious fact that these are different authors and different novels, there’s something else unique about the serialized novel: when a novel was issued independent of another publication (the parts of many serialized novels appears within literary magazines of the time), authors had their own color for a cover. It made new parts stand out on shelves and caught potential readers’ eyes. Dickens’ covers were blue, Thackeray’s were yellow. George Eliot’s covers were green, and from what I’ve found so far, Anthony Trollope’s were brown (at least those from the same publisher). I think I recall another writer having purple covers, but I haven’t been able to come up with who that was. If you know, let me know in the comments!
A little later in the 19th century, another form of the serialized book emerged: the “three-volume” novel (aka the “three-decker” or my favorite, the “triple-decker”). Longer novels like Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady or George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss both appeared in this format (we have a copy of the latter in our collection). The triple-decker afforded some of the convenience of the serial in a more condensed form and by the time it was popularized, book-making processes (and consequently book-buying) had become cheaper. On the other hand, both established and newauthors of the age began to make their living this way, many of them through sensational, overly-dramatic tropes and as a result, in some literary circles, the triple-decker took a lot of criticism and mockery. As one of Oscar Wilde’s characters remarks in one of my favorite plays,The Importance of Being Ernest, “It [a baby carriage] contained the manuscript of a three-volume novel of more than usually revolting sentimentality.” (Wilde himself published some of his writings in serial format in literary journals of the time, though he didn’t produce anytriple-deckers.)
Whether you’re an English major, a literature lover, or just curious about unique formats of books, you’re always welcome to pay us a visit to see our serial sets, three-deckers, and more!
Author Lucy Herndon Crockett wasn’t born in Southwest Virginia, but that doesn’t mean we can’t add her to the list of American writers with ties to the area. She moved to Seven Mile Ford (Smyth County), Virginia, later in her life in 1947, and worked on several books and manuscripts there. Born in Hawaii in 1914, she travelled as a speech writer and secretary for the chairman of the American Red Cross, and served as a Red Cross worker in World War II, spending time in the South Pacific and Asia. This time abroad was a strong influence the books she wrote during and after the war. Crockett was also an illustrator, creating drawings for her books and the books of others. One of her first publications, from the 1930s, was actually a short booklet on decoupage and decoration. Her interests were as varied as her subjects.
The gallery below includes images itemsin Special Collections, including an inscribed edition ofPong Choolie, You Rascal–! and typescripts with Crockett’s edits to published and unpublished manuscripts.
Lucy Herndon Crockett books in Special Collections
Inscribed inside cover of Pong Choolie, You Rascal–! in Special Collections
Manuscript corrections to Capitan typescript, Lucy Herndon Crockett Papers (Ms2011-032)
Manuscript corrections to Kings without Castles typescript, Lucy Herndon Crockett Papers (Ms2011-032)
Manuscript corrections to Kings without Castles typescript, Lucy Herndon Crockett Papers (Ms2011-032)
Manuscript corrections to Capitan typescript, Lucy Herndon Crockett Papers (Ms2011-032)
Cover page of manuscript for Bus Station Blues, Lucy Herndon Crockett Papers (Ms2011-032)
First page of manuscript for Bus Station Blues, Lucy Herndon Crockett Papers (Ms2011-032)
During her career, Crockett wrote 11 books and illustrated many more. Since 2011, Special Collections has acquired copies of all of her authored works(see the list below), though a few are still in cataloging. They should be available soon. Crockett’s audience varied. Lucio and His Nuong and That Marioare related books (Lucio and Mario are brothers) written for children and younger adults. Popcorn on the Ginzo, Teru, and The Magnificent Bastardsreflect her experiences living in Asia after World War II, as well as her other later works, were for adult readers.
Bibliography
c.1930s?-Decoupage: The Pleasures and Perplexities of Decorating with Paper Motifs
1939- Lucio and His Nuong: A Tale of the Philippine Islands
1940- Capitan: The Story of an Army Mule
1941- That Mario
1949- Popcorn on the Ginzo: An Informal Portrait of Postwar Japan
1950- Teru: A Tale of Yokohama
1953- The Magnificent Bastards (Later made into a movie- The Proud and Profane)
1957- Kings Without Castles
1960- The Year Something Almost Happened in Pinoso
1963- Pong Choolie You Rascal!
Unpublished manuscript, dated 1972- “Bus Station Blues”
You can read more about the collection and Lucy Herndon Crockett in the finding aidonline. You can also visit us to see more of the collection. There are many authors with connections to our area, and Crockett isn’t the only about whom we have papers and manuscripts–we’ve recently acquired materials by and about Sherwood Anderson, for example. However, Crockett is a lesser-known name in many circles. By preserving and providing access to these papers, we can offer a little insight into her creative experience, and hopefully, introduce her to a new audience in a new century.
Although I sometimes find it hard to believe, back in February, I celebrated 6 years with Virginia Tech Special Collections. Time flies when you’re having fun, and since then I’ve processed, scanned, scoured through, or somehow handled a LOT of manuscript materials. I certainly can’t remember everything about every item, but there are plenty of things that stick with a person: a particularly exciting image, a sad letter, a plan from a local house that has to be seen to be believed…I could make you a long list.One thing you can never forget, however, is your first collection. Only about a week or so after I started, while trying to learn how processing happened here (every institutions has its methods), we bought a glass plate negative with two copies of a print. It’s not a life-changing finding aid in the scheme of things (though it is a cool plate!), but meant (and still means) something to me.
TheIvanhoe, Virginia, Moonshine Still Glass Plate looks, well, like this:
Print made from glass plate negative of a still near Ivanhoe, Virginia, c.1932
This is a print made from the plate and it depicts a working still. If the approximate date we have is close, then this was a still that was in action during Prohibition in the United States. We were primarily interested in it for the local history (Wythe County) connect. In 2009, the culinary history collection was well established, but we hadn’t started collecting materials on the history of the cocktail in America just yet. I always feel like this item was a little ahead of its time, since we would start collecting on the cocktail, distilling, and Prohibition about three years later.
If you’re curious what the plate itself looks like, I’ve made an attempt to photograph it, but our digital camera doesn’t like to focus on an object like this (which makes the prints extra helpful!):
There’s a short and sweet finding aid for this collection available online. We didn’t have much to go on, so it’s by no means my longest or most researched guide, but it was how I started learning about Virginia Tech Special Collections and how I started experimenting with EAD (that’s Encoded Archival Description, the XML schema we use to create our finding aids). Six years later, I would say I’ve come a long way, but I’m still learning everyday. I’ve worked with collections ranging in size from a single item tomore than 100 boxes. Our processes have changed and evolved, too, as we’ve added new software, skills, and people to the department. I can’t wait to see what happens next, and I hope you continue to follow us the blog and visit us! We have a lot of memories on our shelves, waiting to be discovered.
If you’ve visited Special Collections in the last 2 years, you’ve probably seen our reading room. (Although, if you were last here more than 2 years ago, the tables might have been a little different and if you were last here more than 8 years ago, we weren’t even in this space!)
Coincidentally, the space you can see into behind the open glass door is my office. So, now you know where to find me!
However, the reading room is really just the gateway to Special Collections’ secrets. So, this week, I took walk into the Rare Book Room and twoof our manuscript storage spaces with adigital camera.
Our historical photograph collection is in black acid-free boxes and is organized generally by topic. Beyond it, you can see some bound and boxed newspapers above and part of our collection of vertical files on university history below.To be honest, manuscript collections means lots of boxes on shelves.Seriously, I mean LOTS of boxes. In all kinds of sizes and shapes.These boxes contain rolled architectural drawings from two large IAWA (International Archive of Women in Architecture) collections.
One of our on-going projects at the moment (well, two on-going projects, now, but more on that below), involves managing all these boxes (and books!). Until the last year or so, everything was on shelves where it fit and we relied on a printed shelf list and/or our archival management software to tell us where things are. However, in late 2013, we launched the first phrase of a major reorganization. Most of our manuscript collections are now in order by number on the shelf. We still have some more things to move, but at the moment, we’re working on creating space for additional shelves (meaning we need to move some map cases). IAWA materials are located on separate shelving and will probably be reorganized in the future. Other future phases will involve reordering record group materials (in a smaller room past the map cases below) and flat files in map cases like these:
Boxes on top of these map cases contain textiles (which will be moved to new shelving soon) and architectural models.These cases, like the others above, contain architectural drawings stored flat. We have map cases throughout the department that also house oversize manuscript materials, unframed art, and historical university items.
Opposite the space where the manuscript collections are being put in number order is part of our Rare Book collection. (Some of it is also in an off-site library storage facility.)
Our rare books are shelved in call number order, but not all together. We have some shelved by size (so we can maximize available shelves) and others shelved by topic (like university publications and Civil War books). This photo shows a set of shelves containing “large” books, which for us means books over 28cm tall.We also have a fun collection of boys adventure books, which have spines that make for nice images.
We are also in the process of shifting our book collection in order to fit in one more range of shelving. (Space is tight and we’re exceptionally good atacquiring new materials!) It’s a long process, but it will give us much-needed wiggle room. For us, managing materials is always an active process, whether it’s adding a single new boxor moving 1,800 manuscript collections and 35,000 books.
Of course, there’s lots more to see and this is only a sneak peek.If you do pay us a visit and want to see more, please ask! We’re more than happy to take you on a tour beyond the glass door at the end of the reading room and into the stacks. We LOVE to share Special Collections and you’ll probably see something you might not discover otherwise!
This past Monday, a new exhibit opened on the 2nd floor of Newman Library. If you’re in the area over the next month or so, you might want to drop by! “Lincoln in Our Time” is an exhibit that includes documents, artifacts, pictures, and an interactive display with videos and presentations. Many of the materials on display come from Special Collections, and the videos are the work of a class in the Department of History, HIST2984: Abraham Lincoln: The Man, the Myth, the Legend.” You can read a bit about the exhibit in one of the photos below, but you’ll have to visit the library for more details. “Lincoln in Our Time” will be in place until April 15, so you’ve got plenty of time!
Lincoln in Our Time Exhibit
Lincoln in Our Time Exhibit. The TV on the right has interactive displays and videos.
Lincoln in Our Time Exhibit
Political cartoons and newspapers/magazine images
One of the display cases, including pictures, document, and artifacts from Special Collections.
Lincoln in Our Time Exhibit poster and “Our American Cousin flyer. The 7 foot tall version of the flyer was made from a scan of an item in Special Collections.
*Special thanks to Scott Fralin in University Libraries for the great photographs!
If “Lincoln in Our Time” isn’t enough Civil War history for you, you should also know about the upcoming Civil War Weekend on March 13-15, 2015. There will be guest speakers on a range of topics, showcasing Civil War history at Virginia Tech and beyond. Special Collections’ own Marc Brodsky, Public Services and Reference Archivist, will be talking about resources you can find here in our department. You can find out more about the events and register on the website!
We seem to be on a roll lately with posts about Virginia Tech history. While that isn’t all we’re about, I’m not oneto ruin a good thing. Plus, as I was looking for this item the other day, I thought it might be fun to post. It’s an acceptance letter to Virginia Agriculture and Mechanical College, dated September 23, 1873. (For those of you keeping track, that’s only the second year VAMC was accepting students!)In some ways, this item is a sneak peek. It’s part of a collection that has yet to be processed (more on that in a moment), but it’s one of those tidbits that was begging to be shared.
Acceptance letter to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, to “G. D. Showacre, Esq.,” dated September 23, 1873.
The handwriting is a bit squashed in places, but this letter reads:
G. D. Showacre, Esq.
Dr Sir, I have the pleasure of informing you that the Faculty has appointed you a State student in this College. You will please report in person as soon as practicable, and a failure to do so within thirty days will forfeit the appointment.
Very respectfully yrs
V. E. Shepherd
Secretary Faculty
Actually, it’s less a letter and more of a note. Formal, to be sure, but still only two sentences: You’re accepted. Show up in the next month or don’t show up at all.Quite direct and to the point. In any case,”G. D. Showacre” is actually George D. Showacre from Greene County, Virginia. He attended VAMCfor three years, from 1873 to 1876–clearly, he showed up! This is an exciting piece of university history for us and we’re lucky it survived this long.
This item is part of a donation received by Special Collections last year. The collection hasn’t been processed yet, but once it is, it will be available as the Showacre Family Collection. In addition to the letter, it includesa handwritten copy of a funeral sermon for Charles Showacre delivered by William Runyan on May 22, 1864. That being said, just because a collection isn’t processed, doesn’t mean it’s off limits! If you’d like to see the letter in person, you’re welcome to visit us. We’ll be here.
Today’s post is about a letter. In some ways, it’s unique (it IS one of a kind, after all), and in some ways, it adds to the canon of Civil War correspondencewritten home. But this letter has a little something extra. It’sa letter from Isaac Cox to his wife, written June 29, 1862. At the time, Cox was a private with the (Confederate) 29th Regiment, Virginia Infantry. It was a regiment recruited largely from Southwest Virginia. Throughout their 3+ years, soldiers in this regiment fought mostly in Virginia, but also experienced fighting in Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Cox’s letter home is brief. It talks of the regiment’s march to Princeton, West Virginia, and back, and also includes news of someone named Bill. Not all that different from many other letters written home during the war. But, that isn’t quite what caught our attention. Certainly, the local connection is important (Cox lived in Saltville, Virginia, before and after the war). When you take a look at the letter, however, there’s somethingsurprising.Cox decorated his letter, carefully cutting a design in the page…
Letter from Isaac Cox to his wife, June 29, 1862, Taswill [Tazewell] CountySometimes, it’s amazing that a 152 year old letter lasts this long at all. Some of the design here has been lost–you can see the tears at the tiny “finger” details and more than one spoke/petal is missing or loose. We’ve housed this item in a mylar sleeve to help prevent further damage.
If you’re curious about the letter, here’s a transcript:
Taswill [Tazewell] County June 29 1862 Dier Affectionated Wife I take the plesent [matter] of senden you a few lines to let you now that I am well at this time hopeing when this few lines come to hand they will find you in helth I received you kind best last eavining and I was truly glad to here that you was all well we had the hardest march to prinzton [Princeton] and back that I ever had we was orded to cook 4 days rashuns the other day and then we started and was gon to [two] days and a half from our camps we was march in 4 miles of prinzton and then we stade in the woods for two days and 3 nites and then return to our camps it made my feet very soar you wanted to no what had be come of bill he is still at Jeffer? [Jefferson?] Mills in the horsepital yet & hant herd from him in a bout 2 weeks and then he was getin well as he cald I am a goin to try to come home a bout harvest if I can but I dont now whither I can or not So no more at this time only Still rember your husband un till deth
Carroll Co to Charlott Cox
Isaac and Charlotte had five children, two of whom were born during the war, so he clearly managed a visit at some point! Charlotte died in 1911; Isaac in 1925.
If you’d like more information on the letter or on Isaac Cox, you can view the full finding aid here. Or, you can pay us a visit to see this amazing letter in person!
I’m posting on both Special Collections blogs this week, so I’m all about food! On this blog, we’re looking atthe intersection of agriculture experiment stations, recipes, and meal planning. And a work by a man named George Washington Carver.(If you want to see the latest History of Food and Drink post about sandwiches, you can view it here. Either way, you’re going to hear about peanut butter. 🙂 ) Here’s a bit ofThree Delicous Meals Every Day for the Farmer from 1916. (And no, that’s not a typo–“Delicous” is how it appears on the title page and throughout the text.)
George Washington Carver served as the director of theTuskegee Institute’s Agriculture Department from 1896 until the time of his death in 1947. During his tenure, he published numerous bulletins, including this one.Three Delicous Meals Every Day for the Farmerbegins with an introduction about the relationship between people and food, including what he saw as some of the issues of the time. The majority of the provides a plan of three meals a day for one week.
What grabbed my attention was the “Explanatory” section at the end, which includes recipes for eight dishes that are among the planned menu. There is a focus on simplicity, economy, and (re)use. “Granulated Toast” is basically breadcrumbs which can be used in a number of other ways and in other recipes. “Bacon Puffs” are made from a piece of the bacon that’s already been used at least once. Carver’s recipe for “Nut Sandwiches” means using whatever kind of nut or nuts you have available, peanut or otherwise. These are easy, satisfying, sustainable (if a bit repetitive) dishes meant to appear over and over again in meal plans and they require (mainly) ingredients that were available on the farm.
![Letter from Isaac Cox to his wife, June 29, 1862, Taswill [Tazewell] County](https://scuablog.lib.vt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ms2012_071-copy.jpg)
