UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 37, Page 5
July 7, 1994
Library offers 'American Feast' in Special Collections Gallery

     An American Feast: Food, Dining and Entertaining in the United
States from Simmons to Rombauer" will be on view through September in
the Special Collections Exhibition Gallery of the Hugh M. Morris
Library.
     Gallery hours are from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays,
and until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.
     The exhibition, which focuses on American attitudes and the
culture developed around food and dining, covers the period between
the publication in 1796 of the first American cookbook by Amelia
Simmons and the first appearance in 1931 of Irma Rombauer's kitchen
icon, The Joy of Cooking.
     Examined in the exhibition are food preparation and service, the
etiquette of dining, the evolution of the dining room, the impact of
technology and the home economics movement. Materials documenting
these aspects of American food culture include cookbooks, etiquette
manuals, architectural handbooks, women's magazines, diaries,
manuscript recipe books, menus, trade catalogs and guidebooks.
     The exhibition draws from the University's Unidel History of
Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Collection and makes use of
images from broadsides, posters and photographs. Additionally, the
exhibition draws upon Special Collections' strong holdings of books on
cookery, documenting approaches to food preparation in America over
the course of nearly two centuries.
     Cookbooks in Special Collections include more than 200 titles and
span the 16th through 20th centuries. The bulk of the collection is
American imprints between 1830 and 1915. The earliest American
imprints are Richard Brigg's The New Art of Cookery (Philadelphia,
1792), possibly the first American printing of this English work;
Susannah Carter's The Frugal Housewife (Philadelphia, 1796), an
American issue of an English cookbook; and Amelia Simmons' American
Cookery (Hartford, 1796), often cited as the first American cookbook
by an American author.
     Materials selected for inclusion in the exhibition are
interdisciplinary in subject, supporting research in a range of
academic studies, including women's studies, social and cultural
history, the history of technology, art history and cultural and urban
anthropology.
     Gary Yela, senior assistant librarian in Special Collections, was
curator of the exhibition.
     For more information, call 831-2231.