Cookbooks, Culinary Arts, Culinary History : Cookbook Collections
UW Digital Collections featuring Cookbooks
These digital collections, curated by Barbara Hamel, showcase selections from the cookbook collection that have enduring interest for alumni and scholars.
Carson Gulley Cookbook Collection
Celebrate Carson Gulley, legendary chef with Housing Food Service, and famous for recipes that are still prepared on campus, including fudge-bottom pie.
Playing House: Homemaking for Children
Discover how young women were educated to assume their future role as homemakers.
Recipe for Victory: Food and Cooking in Wartime
Learn how conserving and stretching food resources during World War I made a significant contribution to the war effort.
Cookbook Collections and Archives of Culinary History (natl. & intl.)
- "What's Cookin' @ Special Collections" (blog), History of Food & Drink Collection, Virginia Tech, University LibrariesFeatures blog with recipes and reflections.
- Biodiversity Heritage LibraryComprehensive digital collection of legacy literature of biodiversity. Find also texts about food production and preparation, cookery.
- Community Cookbook Archive: LA (Los Angeles, LA County)"Los Angeles at the Table". A project of artist and curator, Suzanne Zoe Joskow.
- Cookbooks, Mississippiana Collection, Digital Collections, University of Southern MississippiCollection of community cookbooks from the state of Mississippi.
- Cookery Collections, Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst LibrariesOverviews and finding aids to print holdings.
- Feast Afrique, Library"Documentation & Celebration of West African Food & Drink Knowledge & Heritage"
- Feeding Michigan, Digital Collections, Michigan State University LibrariesDigital archive of 68 Michigan community cookbooks, dating back to the late nineteenth century.
- Fons Grewe d' alimentacio i gastronomia, Universitat de BarcelonaLanding page in Catalan. Biblioteca Patrimonial Digital.
- Indian Community Cookbook Project, FLAME University, Digital HumanitiesOpen-access archive of community cookbooks from across India.
- Katherine Golden Bitting Collection, Library of Congress, Rare Books and Special Collections DivisionPublications and manuscripts on gastronomy, 15th through 20th centuries.
- Kirschner Cookbook Collection, Magrath Library, University of MinnesotaFeatures blog with recipes and reflections.
- Lizzie Black Kander Digital Collection, Wisconsin Historical SocietyPapers of Lizzie Black Kander (1858-1940) relating to her founding and operation of the settlement house that ultimately became the Jewish Community Center of Milwaukee.
- Manuscript Cookbooks SurveyDatabase of pre-1865 English-language manuscript cookbooks held in US public institutions.
- Mexican Cookbook Collection, University of Texas, San AntonioGuide to UTSA’s Mexican Cookbook Collection. More than 2,200 titles in English and Spanish documenting the variety and history of Mexican cuisine from 1789 to the present.
- Wellcome Library Recipe Books16th-19th century domestic recipe manuscripts.
Note: Find digitized texts in the library catalogue. An option to limit your search to online materials appears once you have entered a search.
Aprons, Appliances and More! (collections & exhibits)
- Alcohol's Empire: Distilled Spirits in the 1700s Atlantic WorldEssays, recipes, videos, and more. Collaboration of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Wangensteen Historical Library, and Tattersall Distilling.
- Trade Cards: An Illustrated HistoryHighlights from the Waxman Collection of Food and Culinary Trade Cards—advertising trade cards about food and related ca. 1870-1900.
Cookbook Collection at Steenbock Library
In 1965, Madison resident Mortimer Levitan donated 2615 cookbooks to the libraries in memory of his mother, Dora T. Levitan.
Generous gifts made by faculty and staff, community members, and the Cherkasky, Fried, Hagquist, Jolly, Kiser Quint, Lea, Lothe, Schmitz-Hinger, Steenbock, Wilt and Winner families and, by Rheta McCutchin (Emeritus Director of Housing Food Service, UW-Madison), enrich this collection to more than 5000 titles.
Titles from the collection reflect several themes:
- culinary history (including hospitality, homemaking)
- appliance and commercial product cookery
- United States regional cuisine
- world cuisine
- trends in cookery (special diets, ingredients and novelties)
How to Visit...
Find the collection on the first floor of the library within its southwest corner. Look for signage.
How to Browse...
The collection is shelved within stacks by LC (Library of Congress) call numbers. Use our guide to facilitate your browsing of this section. Search the online catalog for precise stacks location.
- Stacks Guide, TX Call NumbersPrintable handout for browsing stacks; includes additional GT and RM stacks.
Menu Collections
- CIA Menu CollectionCulinary Institute of America’s special collection of over 40,000 historical menus,
- Ira Silverman Railroad Menu CollectionDigital Collections, Northwestern University Libraries
- Menu Collection, WHSWisconsin Historical Society collection.
- Menus: The Art of DiningUNLV, University Libraries, Digital Collections
- Menus at the Nobel BanquetUnique menus for guests and laureates, 1901 to present.
- What's on the Menu?Restaurant Menu Collection, New York Public Library