Library of Congress's Blog, page 138

A Friendly Feast

Family at dinner table, Thanksgiving, by artist Edward Penfield for Collier’s Weekly. Nov. 25, 1901. Prints and Photographs Division.

This Thanksgiving, I’ll be celebrating “Friendsgiving” – a thankful gathering for those of us unable to spend the holiday with our families. The veritable smorgasbord of dishes everyone is bringing got me thinking about everyone’s food traditions, since Turkey Day usually revolves around sharing a meal. I imagine my friends’ dishes come from old family recipes or include eats that are a staple at their home celebrations.

I’ll be missing my mom’s oyster dressing this year, but I’ll be channeling my Southern roots with a big pot of slow-cooked collard greens.

Although early Thanksgiving days were spontaneous celebrations, by the mid-19th century an annual fall Thanksgiving meal was customary throughout much of the nation. During the gold rush, miners far from home observed a day of thanks. On Dec. 1, 1850, Alfred T. Jackson of Litchfield County, Connecticut, describes his California Thanksgiving.

“All we did was to lay off and eat quail stew and dried apple pie. I thought a lot about the old folks and would like to have been home with them, and I guess I will be next year…”

Ralph Lifshitz, a poultry purveyor in 1939 New York, talks about his work and customers, with sentiments that can resonate even today.

“This past Thanksgiving – not a Jewish holiday, of course – but I believe more Jews bought turkeys than ever before. Why? In my opinion, it’s due to particular world relations at this time, to conditions of oppression abroad and the desire to give thanks for living in America.”

Mr. T.L. Crouch, a Rogerine Quaker, preparing to carve the Thanksgiving turkey. Photo by Jack Delano, Nov. 1940. Prints and Photographs Division.

Holiday meals on the plantation were “nothing to get very much excited over,” according to Mrs. C.G. Richardson, who grew up during the Civil War.

“There was always extra preparation made in the kitchen, although there was always so much food on the plantation. Turkey was not just a treat for Christmas and Thanksgiving then, for instance, for there were droves of turkeys on the Brunson plantation and they were eaten whenever anybody felt like having turkey.”

Much like “Friendsgiving,” Thanksgiving celebrations weren’t always just a family affair.

The Jan. 20, 1855, issue of the North-Western Democrat (Minneapolis), featured a letter from an enthusiastic Minnesotan, who was grateful for Minnesota hospitality and Minnesota climate.

“Rarely does it fall to the lot of a traveler, when far from home and among strangers, to have an invitation to attend the welcome anniversary of Thanksgiving among a large circle of friends; but such has been my happiness. … There were present on this occasion from 80 to 90 of the most healthy, intelligent and enterprising people I ever met with … Large plates of roast venison of the finest quality first met my eye, and in close proximity were several of the squealing, bristling tribe, stretched at full length and stuffed with condiments that pamper the appetites of the most dainty. Next came the pheasant and chicken pies, with grouse, and the more honored of the feathered tribe, served up in every variety of style. The more common dishes, beef and pork, I need not mention. I came near losing myself in the countless variety of pastry of every description …”

Thanksgiving dinner at the house of Earle Landis. Photo by Marjory Collins, Nov. 1942. Prints and Photographs Division.

Frank G. O’Brien recalls a Thanksgiving gathering in Maine during the mid-19th century.

“The big clock that stood like a sentinel in the corner and reached from the floor almost to the ceiling, indicated that the time was only 10:30 when the guests began to arrive. They all came in sleighs, as the winters in those days were not trifling, but meant business from November to March. … Every crack and crevice in the house was penetrated with the aroma of roast turkey and goose, boiled onions, and a medley of other edibles … At precisely a quarter to three, the horn was blown, as the signal for all to proceed to the dining room, where long tables were groaning under their heavy loads, temptingly arranged for the nearly-starved assembly.”

In the Nov. 24, 1901, issue of The San Francisco Call writer Emma Paddock Telford recounts a suburban town’s Friendsgiving from a couple of years prior.

“At the old homestead where the dinner was served the turkey was roasted, the vegetables cooked and the coffee made. One housekeeper whose bread and pastry had achieved more than a local reputation brought the wheaten loaves, the golden pumpkin pies and the flaky cranberry tarts to grace the feast. A second furnished a big pan of luscious scalloped oysters, with crispy ringed celery and home-made jelly. A third, who had inherited her gift for dainty cookery from a line of famous Dutch hausfraus, brought a delectable salad, a store of wondrous home-made pickles and cakes that would melt in your mouth, while a fourth – a bachelor maid – supplied the fragrant coffee and the salted almonds. Home-made bonbons and artistic menus and name cards were the gift of another, while all brought happy faces, contented hearts and a store of overflowing good humor, that made the co-operative dinner a function long to be pleasantly remembered.”

How will you be celebrating Thanksgiving?

Trending: Food, Glorious Food

(The following is an article written by Alison Kelly, science librarian and culinary specialist in the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division, for the November/December 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

Today’s popular food blogs are an outgrowth of recipe-sharing in America that began with community cookbooks.

It seems as if everyone is focused on food. We tune in to cooking shows on television and radio, read magazines and books devoted to food, even plan vacations to include food tourism. Millions share recipes and cooking tips on social media. There are myriad food blogs—on every topic from feeding your toddler to government food policy—and countless boards on Pinterest are devoted to food. We share photos of our latest meal on Instagram.

But 150 years ago, long before this virtual community of recipe-posting existed, people shared their recipes through a different medium— the community cookbook. Like blogs and Pinterest boards, community cookbooks offer an assembled collection of recipes and household hints.

The Library’s rich collection of community cookbooks documents the lives of individuals and their cooking and eating habits as American food systems were transformed by industrialization and urbanization, immigration and westward expansion. They reveal regional tastes, from recipes for peanut soup and chess pie in the south to finnan haddie and cranberry pie in New England. They trace the impact of immigration through ethnic food recipes. They demonstrate the blending of cultures through new dishes, making the description of America as a “melting pot” both figurative and literal.

Largely an American invention, community cookbooks were—and still are—often published to raise funds for causes. They were first sold during the Civil War at the great sanitary fairs held in cities across the northern states to raise money for wounded soldiers and their families. The first known example of the genre—“The Poetical Cook-Book” by Maria J. Moss—was sold at the Great Central Fair in Philadelphia in June 1864.

Community cookbooks continued to be published in ever-increasing numbers at the turn of the 20th century by church groups, improvement associations and women’s clubs. As women began attending colleges and joining clubs, community cookbooks were a tool to support their involvement not only in local projects, but in larger social causes such as the temperance and suffrage movements. By the close of World War I, more than 5,000 charitable cookbooks had been published in support of various causes.

The 20th century brought thousands of additional titles. In 1927, the bipartisan Congressional Club issued its first cookbook, containing family recipes of Members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices and other government officials. Thirteen editions followed, with recipes ranging from Bess Truman’s “Ozark Pudding” to Mrs. Thurgood Marshall’s “Deluxe Mango Bread.” Recipes, photographs and tips on Washington protocol reveal the social and political values of each period. Many editions contain a “Men Only” chapter where recipes contributed by men (rather than their spouses) appear. There, one can find Richard Nixon’s “Meat Loaf ” and Justice William O. Douglas’ “Trout” (to be cooked outdoors).

The Library of Congress Cooking Club issued cookbooks in 1975 and 1987, featuring recipes from Library staff members. From “Javanese Banana Pancakes” to “Vegetarian Chopped Liver,” the recipes are quite eclectic. A recipe for “Dandelion Wine” warns, “Do not fit on a tight, unvented cap or you will create a bomb!”

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, family treasures were lost, including cherished recipes. One local newspaper responded by becoming a clearinghouse for recipe swapping. The result was “Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans” (2008), which not only includes the recipes but the history behind them. The compilation tells the story of a community struggling to rebuild everything—including its culinary history.

The Library’s collection of community cookbooks includes “California Recipe Book,” 1872; “Cloud City Cook-Book,” 1889; “Youngstown Cook Book,” 1905, and “The Congressional Club  Cook Book,” 1965. General Collections.

Library Bestows Gershwin Prize on Willie Nelson

(The following story was written by Mark Hartsell, editor of the Library of Congress staff newsletter, The Gazette.)

Acting Librarian David Mao presents the Gershwin Prize to Willie Nelson.

Whenever Willie Nelson’s bus rolls into town, actor and host Don Johnson said, you know you’re in for a good time, a big party. Wednesday night at DAR Constitution Hall was no exception.

The Library of Congress awarded its Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to Nelson on Wednesday with a musical party featuring more than a dozen of Nelson’s buddies performing some of his best-known and best-loved tunes.

“The Gershwin award is one of the greatest things that’s happened to me in my life – and a lot of things happen in 82 years,” Nelson told the audience. “This is one of the best for sure, and I really do appreciate it.”

Neil Young

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Nelson wrote country-music classics, reshaped the genre through the “outlaw” movement, produced more than 60 country and pop hits, acted in films and on television and, along the way, became a big star – a bearded, braided American icon sporting a bandana and playing a beat-up, autograph-covered guitar named Trigger.

The Library’s celebration of Nelson’s legacy began Tuesday in the Jefferson Building. Nelson attended a luncheon in the Members Room, heard the LC Chorale perform “Crazy,” snapped a group selfie with his family in the Main Reading Room, viewed treasures in the Whittall Pavilion and picked up Burl Ives’ guitar from the display and ripped out a ditty.

Host Don Johnson

On Wednesday, the party moved to Constitution Hall, where musicians Neil Young, Paul Simon, Edie Brickell, Rosanne Cash, Alison Krauss, Jamey Johnson, Leon Bridges, Raul Malo, Ana Gabriel, Buckwheat Zydeco, Cyndi Lauper and Willie’s sons Lukas and Micah Nelson performed some of his greatest hits.

Young, wearing a long fringed coat and backed by a band that featured Lukas and Micah on guitars, kicked off the program with a two-fer of Nelson favorites: “Whiskey River” and “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer),” a tune first popularized by one of Nelson’s own musical influences, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

Following the performance by Young, Johnson took the stage, welcomed the audience and surveyed the members of Congress in the seats.

“Leave it to Willie – only he can bring together Republicans and Democrats. You may have to stay here in Washington, Willie,” Johnson said to laughter. “A whole gang of Willie’s good buddies will be here serenading him. So, Willie, sit back, relax and enjoy the show. God knows, you’ve earned it.”

Paul Simon and Edie Brickell

Bridges then delivered a slow-rolling version of “Funny How Time Slips Away,” the first in a string of Nelson classics: “Crazy” (Malo), “Remember Me” (Simon and Brickell), “Pancho and Lefty” (Cash), “Georgia on My Mind” (Johnson), “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” (Krauss), “Seven Spanish Angels” (Krauss and Johnson), a Spanish-language rendition of “I Never Cared for You” (Gabriel) and “Man with the Blues” (Simon and Buckwheat Zydeco).

After Simon and Buckwheat Zydeco exited, Nelson entered, accompanied by Acting Librarian of Congress David Mao, Sen. Richard Durbin, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Steny Hoyer, Candice Miller and Gregg Harper, vice chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress.

“For more than five decades, Willie Nelson has inspired new generations of songwriters with his melodies, harmonies, voice and heart,” Mao said. “Tonight, we recognize this son of Texas for his matchless contributions to the musical legacy of our nation and for the world.”

Buckwheat Zydeco

With that, Nelson strapped on Trigger and embarked on a brief set of his own: “Night Life,” “Living in the Promiseland” and, with Lauper as a duet partner, a cover of the Gershwins’ classic “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.”

Not everything went to script: After Lauper exited the stage, Nelson was informed that a malfunction in the broadcast truck necessitated that they, rather than call the whole thing off, do the whole thing over.

“We had a problem in the truck, and we need to do that one again. Is that cool?” he asked to cheers.

Lauper returned, and she and Nelson made a second go-round with the Gershwins’ musical disagreement: She said potato, he said potahto, she said tomato, he said tomahto.

Nelson closed the show with a performance of his signature tune, inviting all the cast and the audience to sing along to “On the Road Again” – a few fans went him one better and danced in the aisle.

Afterward, the man who once wrote “turn out the lights, the party’s over” approached the mic with an idea to keep the party going.

Willie Nelson and Cyndi Lauper

“We had a little trouble in the truck,” Nelson quipped. “We’re gonna do it all over again.”

The audience surely wouldn’t have minded.

The Gershwin Prize concert honoring Willie Nelson is scheduled to be broadcast on Jan. 15 on PBS.

*All photos by Shawn Miller

Gershwin Prize Sponsors

Major funding for the event was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and public television viewers. Additional funding was provided by The Ira and Leonore Gershwin Fund, The Leonore S. Gershwin Trust for the benefit of the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board and the Library of Congress James Madison Council.

A Legacy of Librarians

A drawing of the Library of Congress, Smithmeyer & Pelz Architects, ca. 1896. Prints and Photographs Division.

(The following story, written by Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole, is featured in the November/December 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

Thirteen Librarians of Congress helped shape a legislative, national and international library.

Today the Library of Congress is truly a national library that serves the research needs of the U.S. Congress, other federal agencies in all branches of government, the American public and the global community. But that broad mission was not always apparent or supported. The dual nature of the Library of Congress—a legislative library and a national institution—was often debated by legislators and Librarians of Congress, especially during the institution’s first years.

The Early Years

The Library of Congress was established as a legislative branch agency of the American government by an act of Congress, signed into law by President John Adams on April 24, 1800. Its primary purpose was, and remains, reference and research service for Congress.

Congress established the position of Librarian of Congress with oversight from Congress’ Joint Committee on the Library. The Librarian was to be appointed by the President of the United States. The duties of the Librarian were delegated to the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson asked House Clerk John James Beckley to serve as the first Librarian of Congress. Beckley assisted the Joint Committee in ordering books and publishing the Library’s first printed catalog of its holdings. Jefferson took a keen interest in the Library and frequently provided advice regarding purchases.

After Beckley’s death in 1807, Jefferson named the new House clerk, Patrick Magruder, as the second Librarian of Congress. Magruder, a Maryland lawyer and politician, was held responsible by Congress for failing to protect the Library and its financial records when the British burned the Capitol, which housed the congressional library, on Aug. 24, 1814. He resigned on Jan. 28, 1815.

The acquisition by Congress of Jefferson’s personal library in 1815 widened the scope and doubled the size of the Library’s collection, prompting President James Madison to name the first full-time Librarian of Congress. George Watterston, a local novelist and poet, was an ardent nationalist who felt that Jefferson’s library was “a most admirable substratum for a National Library.” He proposed a separate building for the Library of Congress since the United States, in his view, should have a library “equal in grandeur to the wealth, the taste, and the science of the nation.”

Congress did not share his view. Most Members of Congress felt its library should solely serve its legislative needs. The heated debate over the purchase of Jefferson’s library—which included books on many subjects and in several languages—revived old arguments against spending sparse government dollars to create a national library of cultural treasures in the European tradition. The 1815 expenditure of nearly $24,000 for Jefferson’s library of approximately 6,500 volumes also was a convenient excuse for limiting future appropriations for the Library.

Watterston’s librarianship came to an abrupt end in 1829 when newly elected President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat, replaced him with another Democrat: John Silva Meehan, a local printer and publisher. Any move toward creating a national library would be hampered by the growing rivalry between the North and South that would culminate with a bloody civil war. Moreover, Senator James A. Pearce of Maryland, who headed the Joint Committee on the Library from 1845 until his death in 1862, felt the Library of Congress should focus on its legislative responsibilities. This, coupled with a disastrous Christmas Eve fire in 1851 that destroyed two- thirds of the congressional library’s collection of 55,000 items, slowed the Library’s development and growth.

Nonetheless, Congress voted to replace the books and to build a new fireproof room for its library in the U.S. Capitol. The elegant new room opened on Aug. 23, 1853. Librarian of Congress Meehan continued to fulfill the wishes of Senator Pearce with regard to Library acquisitions and functions. As a result, the institution’s role in national functions continued to diminish.

On March 8, 1861, Sen. Pearce informed newly elected President Abraham Lincoln that the president “has always deferred to the wishes of Congress” regarding the appointment of the Librarian of Congress, and that the Joint Committee wished to retain Librarian Meehan. Lincoln ignored Pearce and on May 24 appointed a political supporter, John G. Stephenson, a physician from Terre Haute, Indiana, to become the fifth Librarian of Congress.

Stephenson spent less time supervising the Library than he did serving as a physician for the Union Army. He could do so because in September 1861, he had hired Cincinnati bookseller and journalist Ainsworth Rand Spofford as his assistant. For all practical purposes, Spofford ran the Library until Stephenson’s resignation in December 1864. Lincoln promptly appointed Spofford as Librarian of Congress.

The Modern Librarians

Spofford brought the Library of Congress into the modern age. In a post- Civil War period of growing cultural nationalism, he transformed the Library of Congress into an institution of national significance. He demonstrated to Congress that its library could serve simultaneously as both a parliamentary library and a national library. With full support of the Joint Committee on the Library, he expanded the Library’s space in the Capitol; centralized U.S. copyright registration and deposit at the Library in order to rapidly develop comprehensive collections of Americana; and promoted the authorization and construction of the Library’s first separate building. The “book palace of the American people,” known today as the Library’s Thomas Jefferson building, opened its doors in November 1897.

On July 1, 1897, President William McKinley appointed a new Librarian of Congress to supervise the Library’s move from the Capitol to the new building and to implement a major reorganization including a separate copyright department. John Russell Young, who served until his death on Jan. 17, 1899, was a journalist and former diplomat. A skilled administrator, Young worked hard to build the collections and expand the scope of services provided to Congress. He began the process of reclassifying the Library’s collection and compiling bibliographies specifically for the use of Congress. He also inaugurated the Library’s first services for the blind.

Following Young’s death, President McKinley appointed Herbert Putnam, director of the Boston Public Library, the first experienced librarian to hold the post. Putnam believed that a true national library should serve the cataloging and bibliographic needs of other libraries.

By 1901, the Library of Congress was the first American library to house 1 million volumes and that year published the first volume of a new classification scheme, based on its holdings. The Library also began printing and selling its catalog cards to other libraries. In announcing the card distribution service, Putnam said, “American instinct and habit revolt against multiplication of brain effort and outlay where a multiplication of results can be achieved by machinery.”

During his 40-year tenure, Putnam made American libraries an important Library of Congress constituency; planned and built the Library’s Annex (now the John Adams building), which opened to the public in 1939; and undertook a new international role for the institution through the acquisition of materials from other countries. Under Putnam, the Library established a Legislative Reference Service in 1914 to expand services to Congress. Early in his tenure, Putnam had courted the support of President Theodore Roosevelt who, in his first annual message to Congress on Dec. 3, 1901, called the Library of Congress “the one national library.” When Putnam retired in 1939, the Library had a staff of 1,100, a book collection of six million volumes, and an annual appropriation of approximately $3 million.

The role of libraries in a modern democracy captured the imagination of Putnam’s successor, writer and poet Archibald MacLeish. Appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, MacLeish served as Librarian during wartime while presiding over a major administrative reorganization. MacLeish developed explicit statements of the Library’s objectives along with “Canons of Selection” for its collections. In addition to serving Congress, MacLeish believed that the Library should be a “reference library of the people.”

MacLeish resigned in 1944 to become assistant secretary of state. His assistant, Luther Evans, was nominated by President Harry Truman the following year. Evans was a political scientist who had been involved in the Library’s reorganization. Like MacLeish, he assessed the role and collections of the Library “for the post-war era” and urged the expansion of the Library’s national and international roles. Evans resigned in 1953 to become the third director-general of UNESCO.

The next year, President Dwight Eisenhower nominated L. Quincy Mumford, director of the Cleveland Public Library and president-elect of the American Library Association, as the next Librarian of Congress. During his 20-year term, Mumford presided over an unparalleled period of expansion. The book collections grew from 10 to 16 million volumes, the staff more than tripled and the annual appropriation multiplied from $10 million to more than $100 million.

Under Mumford, both legislative and national services were strengthened, particularly services to the library community. A report commissioned by the Joint Committee on the Library in 1962 urged further expansion of the Library’s national activities. The Library also expanded its foreign holdings, which were identified as weak during World War II. Developments in library automation during the 1960s allowed the library to distribute its cataloging data in machine readable form. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970, which created the Congressional Research Service, underscored the Library’s priority to serve legislators, but did not preclude its growing national and international activities.

In 1975, President Gerald Ford nominated historian Daniel J. Boorstin as the 12th Librarian of Congress. Boorstin presided over the construction and move into a third building on Capitol Hill (the James Madison Memorial Building), which opened in 1980. He focused on strengthening the Library’s ties with Congress and developing new relationships with scholars, publishers, authors, booklovers, cultural leaders and the business community. With congressional support, Boorstin created the American Folklife Center in 1976 and the Center for the Book the following year—two educational outreach endeavors that continue to flourish today.

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the 13th Librarian of Congress, historian James H. Billington began his tenure in September 1987 by stating his intention to leverage the new digital technologies to make the collections universally accessible in the 21st century. Making good on that promise during his tenure broadened the Library’s role to a global information resource.

MORE INFORMATION

Librarians of Congress, 1802-2015

Rare Book of the Month: A Suffragist “In the Kitchen”

(The following is a guest blog post written by Elizabeth Gettins, Library of Congress digital library specialist.) 

Elizabeth Smith Miller, from the Smith Miller NAWSA Scrapbooks.

It’s the time of year when one’s thoughts turn to hearth and home in preparation for Thanksgiving. In honor of this quintessential American holiday, by Elizabeth Smith Miller, is the Rare Book of the Month.

Published in Boston by Lee and Shepard in 1875, this book was written by a suffragist who believed that women’s work in the kitchen should not be given short shrift. In fact, she felt that the proper practice of domestic duties were responsible for keeping Americans civilized.

Smith Miller (1822-1911) had the fortune of being born into a well-established New York family. She was the daughter of noted politician and abolitionist Gerrit Smith, and her cousin was none other than Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It is interesting to note that aside from her cookbook, the Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds seven scrapbooks that chronicle Smith Miller’s efforts to secure women’s right to vote. Leafing through these unique one-of-a-kind scrapbooks gives a fascinating glimpse into a slice of time in American history, as well as show that Smith Miller was a woman of industry and approached life with a sense of purpose.

“In the Kitchen” opens with advice regarding how one should conduct their household through meals and entertainment. Standards were to be established and observed as the running of this important duty was seen to have a direct effect on the conduct of all family members.

Book cover of “In the Kitchen.”

Smith Miller writes, “No silent educator in the household has higher rank than the table. Surrounded three times a day by the family, who gather from their various callings and duties, eager for refreshment of the body and spirit, its impressions sink deep, and its influences for good and ill form no mean part of the warp and woof of our lives. … Should it not, therefore, be one of our highest aims to bring our table to perfection in every particular?”

Certainly, Smith Miller held strong convictions about the importance food and dining!

“In the Kitchen” contains more than 500 pages of recipes culled from French, German, English and American collections and is part of the 4,000 volume gastronomic Katherine Golden Bitting Collection. Incidentally, included is a , which may just come in handy for cooks out there still looking for a way to prepare their Thanksgiving bird.

This Thanksgiving season, let us be thankful for those who came before us, securing American women with the right to vote as well as teaching us the importance of a well-run household.

Rare Book and Special Collection Resources

Digitized Gastronomy Books

My Cookery Books: A narrative bibliography by Elizabeth Robins Pennell

Pinterest board based on images from the Katherine Golden Bitting and the Pennell Collection from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: Art of Good Eating

Join us next month for a look into another historical volume from the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division .

Serving Up Food Collections

(The following story, written by Library culinary specialist Alison Kelly, is featured in the November/December 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

Painter Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want,” Office of War Information poster, 1943. Prints and Photographs Division.

The Nation’s Library offers a veritable feat of food-related collections.

Whether you’re researching what was served at the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving or tracing the history of genetically modified foods, you can find it in the Library of Congress.

The topic of food—interdisciplinary in nature and woven into many aspects of our lives—is well-represented in the Library’s extensive collections of cookbooks, scholarly works, journals, pamphlets, posters and bibliographies on food history. Researchers can also consult the Library’s primary-source materials— from anonymous diaries to presidential papers.

Cookbooks are an invaluable resource for food history. They offer clues about markets, agriculture, nutrition, regional and cultural differences, immigration, technological change and more. Some of the world’s outstanding cookbooks and other works on gastronomy—from the 15th through the 19th centuries—came to the Library in the early 1940s when Arvill Wayne Bitting donated the 4,346-volume collection assembled by his wife, Katherine Golden Bitting (1868-1937), a food chemist for the Department of Agriculture and the American Canners Association. The Library’s cookbook collections range from Maestro Martino’s handwritten 15th-century manuscript (“Libro de arte coquinaria”) in the Bitting collection to contemporary full-color works like “Modernist Cuisine” (2011) and “Cambridge World History of Food” (2014).

Advertising poster for butter, Donald Brun, 1951. Prints and Photographs Division.

American cooking is a special strength of the Library’s collections. Titles include “American Cookery” (1796) by Amelia Simmons. Considered to be the first truly American cookbook, the volume is notable for recipes that included native American ingredients such as molasses, pumpkin and cornmeal. Simmons’ “Pompkin Pudding” baked in a crust is the basis for the American classic, pumpkin pie.

Numerous influential American cookbooks followed—from Lydia Maria Francis Child’s “The Frugal Housewife” (1829) to Irma Rombauer’s “Joy of Cooking,” published in 1931 and followed by six editions.

Many of the Library’s cookbooks have regional focus, with specialized recipes from New England, the American Southwest, the Great Lakes and, of course, the South. An example is one of the first published works on cooking by an African-American author, “What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, etc.” (1881) by Abby Fisher.

Many regional cookbooks have been used to raise funds for local schools, churches or women’s clubs. The community cookbooks comprise a portion of the Library’s food holdings.

Wartime cookbooks could be their own genre. “The Confederate Receipt Book: a compilation of over one hundred receipts adapted to the times” (Richmond, 1863), was the only cookbook published in the South during the Civil War. Cookbooks published during the first and second World Wars encouraged homemakers to do their part in contributing to the war effort on the home front by stretching their budget with recipes such as mock sausage.

Coca-Cola Company’s entire collection of historic television commercials dating to 1950. The national and international advertisements reveal much about world cultures—and their eating and drinking habits— over the past five decades.

Over the past decade, many culinary experts have spoken at the Library on topics ranging from Somali, Turkish, Egyptian and Pan-African cuisine to the fortune cookie. Many notable chefs have spoken at the Library’s National Book Festival. These presentations can be viewed on the Library’s website or its YouTube channel.

Inquiring Minds: VHP Marks 15 Years Preserving Veterans’ Stories

(The following is a story written by Mark Hartsell for the Gazette, the Library of Congress staff newsletter.)

Servicemen and servicewomen raise a toast to victory on VJ Day in 1945. Veterans History Project.

A missing Air Crew Report, author Dennis Okerstrom says, provides plenty of facts about losses in air combat: type of aircraft, names and ranks of crew members, a flight plan. Those facts can’t, however, reveal war’s human dimension – what it’s like to actually get shot down in combat.

“It cannot begin to convey the terror, or the courage, or the sense of loneliness experienced by the young men who suf- fered events such as their aircraft being shot from the sky,” Okerstrom said.

For that, researchers need firsthand accounts of the men and women in uniform who were there – stories like those preserved in the Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress.

Recently, VHP reached a milestone: its 15th anniversary of collecting, preserving and making accessible the remembrances of the veterans who fought America’s wars, from World War I through Iraq and Afghanistan. In the coming months, the project will hit another milestone: 100,000 individual collections, donated by veterans and their families.

VHP marked the anniversary with a launch of a new online feature, “VHP at 15: Collections Over the Years” and with a display in the Great Hall of photos drawn from the collections.

“Over the last 15 years, the Veterans History Project has developed into a rich archive brimming with the insights and emotions of a diverse legion of America’s veterans,” VHP Director Bob Patrick said. “It is very satisfying to hear of the value placed upon VHP by researchers and educators as well as the appreciation expressed by veterans and their families that these stories will be accessible for generations to come.”

About half of those who use the collections onsite hold a personal, not professional, interest in the material, VHP reference specialist Megan Harris said – just “visiting” the collection of a loved one or trying, perhaps, to learn more about the POW experiences of a father who passed away without really talking about what happened.

“That is pretty powerful,” Harris said. “This draws them in in a way that you don’t see every day. They feel really compelled to do that.”

Most others are researchers carrying out a professional mission: academics, authors, filmmakers, journalists and representatives of historical or federal institutions.

Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office investigators, for example, draw on VHP collections in their efforts to provide a full accounting of missing servicemen and servicewomen. The National Museum of the U.S. Army intends to use VHP collections in the new museum planned for Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson drew upon VHP collections for two volumes of his World War II Liberation Trilogy, “Guns at Last Light” and “Day of Battle.” Filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick used the collections for their seven-part World War II miniseries, “The War,” and for their upcoming Vietnam War documentary.

Okerstrom, a literature professor at Park University in Missouri, used the collections for two books that explore World War II air campaigns, “Project 9: Birth of the Air Commandos in World War II” and “Dick Cole’s War: Doolittle Raider, Hump Pilot, Air Commando.”

In many cases, Okerstrom said, the veterans he hoped to interview already had passed away. That left VHP collections as the only source for some of the stories he wanted to tell and for the little details that help make history come alive – such as actor Jackie Coogan, a pilot during World War II, regaling comrades with stories of Hollywood starlets.

“VHP offers a well-documented, cross-referenced collection of interviews that simply doesn’t exist anywhere else,” Okerstrom said. “This is not to diminish the importance of records repositories in other places, but I know of no other place to find so many interviews of so many of America’s veterans.”

The majority of VHP collections – and about two-thirds of research conducted onsite – relate to World War II. Still, a significant portion deals with later conflicts: About 3,700 of the collections come from veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Author Larry Minear drew heavily upon VHP collections for his book “Through Veterans’ Eyes: The Iraq and Afghanistan Experience,” a narrative of the impact of those two wars on veterans such as Marine Sgt. Dax Carpenter, who was badly injured in Iraq and struggled for years at home to get benefits.

“Without the accounts of the experiences of the wars told in first-person terms, my research would have been an exercise in speculation, lacking the rigor rightly expected of social-science undertakings,” Minear said. “What my book seeks to convey is not my own voice but that of soldiers themselves. Proceeding inductively from data to conclusions is of the essence.”

Others use the collections to explore timeless themes like love and war – the relationships, for example, between husbands and wives and parents and children in wartime correspondence.

Christina Knopf, an associate professor at SUNY Potsdam, has used VHP collections to produce a series of research papers about the rhetoric of relationships found in war letters.

During one two-week visit to the Library, she photographed some 5,000 letters from 21 different collections – data she’s only beginning to explore for a project she hopes to turn into a book.

“I took a sabbatical in order to visit the LOC and I was overwhelmed by the choices available to me for research, Knopf said. “The staff was enormously helpful – and that is another benefit of the VHP.”

Whatever use is made of the collections, Okerstrom said, the important thing is to preserve these stories before the veterans who tell them are gone.

“These were ordinary men and women who defeated the best that Germany and Japan had to offer, then came home to get back to their pre-war lives,” Okerstrom said. “They hung up their uniforms and didn’t talk about what they had done, usually viewing their service as unremarkable.

“Today, we recognize just what their service and sacrifice have meant to us all, and their stories need to be preserved for future generations.”

LC in the News: October 2015 Edition

In October, the Library of Congress celebrated a major milestone – Chronicling America, a free, online searchable database of historic U.S. newspapers, posted its 10 millionth page. To mark the milestone, the Library published a series of lists on its social media featuring interesting and off-beat content from the online archive. Several outlets picked up the stories or utilized the resource for lists of their own.

The Atlantic called the resource “one of the best time capsules online.”

“The database is a rich resource, but it’s also the best kind of Internet rabbit hole: You go in looking for one thing, and encounter a dozen fascinating oddities along the way,” wrote reporter Adrienne Lafrance.

“It took about eight years for Chronicling America, a database of historically significant American newspapers launched by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, to log its 10 millionth newspaper page—not too long considering it took decades for all that news to happen,” wrote Lily Rothman for Time.  Included in the story were headlines from 10 major moments in American history.

Washington Post reporter Abby Ohlheiser said, “I am very grateful that the Library of Congress’s researchers found this gem of a debate in their archives this week,” following a post on a series of cat-related headlines, including one on a “bitter war being waged over felines.”

The Atlantic’s City Lab came up with its own list on the history of happy hour.

The Los Angeles Times looked at newspapers from California in the digitized collection and highlighted some of the news of bygone days.

“Small moments, those, but such minutiae make up most people’s lives,” wrote reporter Scott Martelle. “And it’s fascinating to trace the arc back decades, distilling context for how we live today.”

The Daily Oklahoman highlighted the contribution of the Oklahoma Historical Society’s contribution of 300,000 historical state newspapers that are part of the collection.

“Chronicling America’s success in bringing historic Oklahoma newspapers to life was a turning point for the Oklahoma Historical Society’s mission to collect, preserve and share the history of the state of Oklahoma,” said Oklahoma Historical Society Director of Research Chad Williams.

In other collection news, the Library acquired photographer Robert Dawson’s images of public libraries.

“His extensive visual survey can help us understand the varied and changing roles of public libraries today, in all their different sizes and locations, from storefront rooms to grand civic spaces; from crowded book mobiles to cutting edge designs,” Helena Zinkham, Library of Congress director for collections and services, told Hyperallergic. She added that a “hundred years from now, the survey will still be a valuable mirror. The future viewers will just be looking at the images from their own frame of reference and be able to notice more than we might today, such as which kinds of buildings and services endured; which disappeared; and which were preserved as reminders of another era, of library roots.”

Time also ran a piece and included several images from the collection.

Also in October, David Mao began serving as acting Librarian of Congress. Both American Libraries Magazine and the GW Hatchet (the newspaper of Mao’s alma mater The George Washington University) caught up him to discuss his new role.

“There are lots of opportunities here at the Library of Congress, so interested students should look into what we have available and consider working here because it really is a fabulous institution,” Mao told the GW Hatchet. “If you work hard, stay focused and strive for a particular goal, then you will eventually get there.”

 Also recently appointed, or awarded as it were, was the 2015 John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity. Recipients were Jürgen Habermas and Charles Margrave Taylor. The Washington Diplomat covered the ceremony.

A Whole New Blog

Today we welcome the newest member of the Library’s blog family. World’s Revealed: Geography & Maps at the Library of Congress will highlight cartographic objects from the Library’s collections that “sometimes go beyond what usually ends up in exhibits and in textbooks and bring to the forefront uncataloged objects that have never before been placed online.”

The Library’s Geography and Map Division contains more than 6 million maps in addition to a wide array of atlases, globes, raised relief models, archives, a vast collection of digital data and a GIS research center. The blog will explore the past, present, and future of maps and mapping, including sharing latest finds and new acquisitions.

Take a look at the first post.

10 Stories: Monkeys! Chronicling America

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, the reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division have selected some interesting subjects and articles from the archives. We’ve been sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts.

Today we return to our historical newspaper archives for stories about monkeys. And who doesn’t like monkeys?

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Long before Planet of the Apes: “If Monkeys Had Become Men,” detail from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 22, 1913.

“Monkeys on Trial”

Locals in Benares, India, demand that a judge issue a warrant for the arrest of “three monkeys, names unknown, on the charge of theft and causing mischief.” The offending monkeys were said to be “the greatest thieves and robbers in the whole City of Palaces.” Columbus Journal, Nov. 20, 1895.

“Do Apes Make ‘Monkey-Chain’ Bridges?”

Professor Gudger debunks a 300-year old myth of how the little guys climb over each other to cross “alligator-infested streams.” Washington Times, May 18, 1919.

“If Monkeys Had Become Men”

During the first decades of the 20th century, evolutionary theory that man and ape shared a common ancestor was the subject of many lengthy opinion pieces in the popular press, including this one in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 22, 1913.

“The New Fad: Monkeys”

In the same publication, a somewhat less harsh view of our simian friends: “Society ladies have discarded their Chows and their Griffins for the chattering company of the Marmoset.” Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 10, 1921.

“Exterminating Monkeys for Fashion’s Freak”

The Morning Tulsa Daily World of Aug. 6, 1922, is appropriately horrified at the practice of hunting and killing a species of monkey for dress trimmings.

“A Monkey’s Vengeance”

Granted, it’s in the fiction section, but here’s a lesson on why you don’t want to cross a group of monkeys. Los Angeles Herald, June 24, 1906.

“Suddenly a Hairy Monster Sprang Into the Room”

The harrowing account of an attack on a family by a chimpanzee, escaped from the home of E.W. Knowlton, “millionaire patent medicine manufacturer … [and] collector of simians.” Washington Times, Nov. 23, 1919.

“The Chimpanzee That Goes to University”

In the interest of fairness, here is the story of Susie, a well-mannered and educated ape. San Francisco Call, April 23, 1911.

“Studying the Monkey Mind”

A profile of Melvin E. Haggerty, “the young Hoosier scientist of Harvard University and the investigations he has been making … at the local zoo into the capacity and activities of the simian mind.” St. Paul Appeal, Sept. 5, 1908.

“Prof. Shepherd’s Experiments with Two Intelligent Apes”

Another scientist discusses his findings. “Their clever tricks and man-like actions lead him to conclude that they have a low form of reasoning, crude powers of ideation, sympathy and even a sense of humor.” Not to mention dapper style. Check out that top hat! Omaha Daily Bee, Nov. 7, 1915.

Speaking of Chronicling America, the National Endowment for the Humanities (our partner in the project) has launched a nationwide contest, challenging you to produce creative web-based projects using data pulled from the newspaper archives website. We’re looking for data visualizations, web-based tools or other innovative web-based projects using the open data found on Chronicling America. NEH will award cash prizes, and the contest closes June 15, 2016.

Launched by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2007, Chronicling America provides enhanced and permanent access to historically significant newspapers published in the United States between 1836 and 1922. It is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a joint effort between the two agencies and partners in 40 states and territories. Start exploring the first draft of history today at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov and help us celebrate on Twitter and Facebook by sharing your findings and using the hashtags #ChronAm #10Million.