Community Cookbooks
Cookbooks were a popular form of everyday community building at the turn of the 20th century. Cookbooks reinforced gender roles, advertised local brands, and helped families cook meals on a budget. These cookbooks are all from Michigan communities and have been chosen from Michigan State’s special collections.
Women's Roles
“A successful homemaker, a loving wife and a doting mother,” these were the roles of women before World War II, when women celebrated the meals they cooked for their families, guests and loved ones. These cookbooks remind us of the matronly roles of women during the late 19th and 20th century, before women left the kitchen and entered the workforce.
Date: 1907
Call Number: TX715 .C477 1907a
The Charlevoix Cook Book
At the turn of the century community cookbooks were produced widely across the US. Primarily created and used by women of European descent, they established ways and means for women to organize and connect, laying the groundwork for the suffrage movement. This book contains hundreds of recipes by multiple authors arranged by type with over half dedicated to desserts. Unique and with a bit of comic relief are recipes to cook and preserve a husband.
Jennifer Junkermeier-Khan
Date: 1903
Call Number: TX715. M674 1903
Mother Hubbard’s Modern Cupboard
Old Mother Hubbard went to her cupboard to fetch her poor dog a bone, as the nursery rhyme goes. This 1903 cookbook taught women how to turn that empty cupboard into a meal fit for polite society, a task that was not easy for middle and working class families. Books like this one reinforced social standards by providing advice for how to entertain on a budget. Local Battle Creek, MI company, R. W. Snyder, used this cookbook to advertise its Fine Extracts.
Abigail Rhoades
Date: 1920
Call Number: TX715 .S2773 1920
Favorite Recipes Prepared by the Woman's Guild of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Published in 1920 by the Woman's Guild to help St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Lansing raise money for the Parish House Fund. Favorite Recipes was a cookbook that brought together women of the church to commemorate the fine art of cookery by the women of Lansing, create lasting friendships, and produce practical recipes that anyone could duplicate in the home.
Tiana Pete
20th Century Cook Book: A Feast of Good Things
Looking for a tamale, cherry pie, or scalloped salmon recipe? Would you be interested in some household tips on getting rid of that awful stain? What about a remedy for the common cold? The 20th Century Cook Book is the versatile book that you never knew you needed! Dedicated to the housewives and sweethearts interested in perfecting the art of cooking, it features over 100 tried and approved recipes, household tips, and remedies.
Stephany Bravo
Date: 1913
Call Number: : TX715 .T87 1913
In these Unprecedented Times...
Community cookbooks provided a way for people to raise money for the extraordinary circumstances in their lives. The early 20th century saw many unforeseen calamities, the First and Second World War, the Spanish Influenza, and the Great Depression. Recipes for War Soup, and Invalids Tray further reflect how the wider world can affect what people ate. How do these actions reflect things you have seen in the present as people react to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Date: 1918
Call Number: TX715 .W6635 1918
The Woman's Union cook book: containing two hundred and fifty-five recipes / contributed by The Immanuel Baptist Church and their Friends
Published in Detroit, Michigan in 1918 during WWI. Food rationing resulted in more than one recipe for ‘War Soup’, the main ingredient: potato water! The other important ingredient for any war effort is money. Selling ad space to local businesses in community cookbooks allowed church communities and women to utilize pre existing fundraising traditions that were already nearly a century old.
Izzy Wikle
The Women's Union Cookbook: Containing Two Hundred and Fifty-Five Recipes Contributed By The Immanuel Baptist Church and Their Friends
This community cookbook was originally published 1918 in Detroit, Michigan. That same year saw the end of WWI and the beginning of the Spanish Influenza. The deadly flu that would last until April 1920 infecting roughly ⅓ of the world's population. Facing the hardships of the First World War and the looming fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic, this cookbook likely served as a source of community for its authors.
Marybeth Marsh
Community Cooking
Date: 1918
Call Number: TX715 .W6635 1918
Community Cookbooks are filled by individuals who, while part of a group, may not always agree. They contain generations of traditions in food, ethnicity, faith, and culture. Often enhanced by personal annotations and well-loved pages, the recipes contained in community cookbooks transcend the individual and build community among like-minded people. The communities built by these books enabled curators and users alike to find strength in each other even while the world shifted around them.
Date: 1918
Call Number: TX715 .W6635 1918
Date: 1894
Call Number: TX715 .C376 1894
The Caro cookbook; a selection of tested recipes prepared by the ladies of the First M.E. Church, of Caro
The Caro Cookbook is a community cookbook from 1894 that served as a fundraiser for a church in Caro, Michigan. Featuring classic recipes such as soups, dinner dishes, and desserts, this cookbook intertwines personal stories and serves as a historical account of the community it served. The women that wrote this book built community and valued teaching and learning through this charitable exchange, while the handwritten notes inside further enriched its personal history, character, and story.
Emma Stubbs
Date: 1903-1904
Call Number:TX715 .S629 1903
Club Cook Book
This early 1900s historic cookbook, featuring tasty treats like cakes, cookies, and doughnuts, is one of many of its kind made by American women’s groups. These groups gave women the chance to foster bonding through sharing household tips and creating fundraisers in communities. Given the limitations on women’s rights in the early 20th century, creating community through food enabled them to find strength in each other while the world shifted around them.
Julia Sager
Advertising Cookbooks
After the Civil War, mass food production and the spreading of the transcontinental railroad caused the emergence of large brands that grew in popularity across the US. With these brands came advertisements, and by the late 1800s, printed advertisements had become more sophisticated, with full page advertisements appearing in magazines and cookbooks. These advertisements were great at generating brand recognition. By the early 20th c. advertising cookbooks were being printed and distributed at a much higher rate than alternative cookbooks. Due to their popularity, advertising cookbooks shaped the American kitchen by standardizing and commercializing popular recipes.
Date: 1896
Call Number:TX715.H69.1896
The Howell Cookbook
This cookbook was compiled by the ladies of the First Baptist Church of Howell. Once the recipes were collected amongst themselves, the book was printed and sold for $0.50 as a fundraiser for the church. The proceeds went to benefit the church and help with things like needed repairs, and other costs. Church cookbooks such as this were largely published by women for women, connecting each of them through shared recipes and home life experiences.
Dale Mize
Date: 1918
Call Number:TX715.C6619 1918
Cook Book by the Ladies’ Aid Society of the Second Reformed Church
This 1918 cookbook published by the Ladies’ Aid Society of the Second Reformed Church is living proof of the tight knit community of Kalamazoo, Michigan. This type of church cookbook was popularized in the early 20th century as a way to raise funds for the church and uphold the tradition of sharing recipes. This unique cookbook also supports local businesses, advertising their products alongside each recipe.