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.
Badger Bites: University of Wisconsin-Madison Cookbooks
Discover how food has played a role in campus culture and identity with this small collection of cookbooks produced by University of Wisconsin-Madison campus organizations. An additional Madison community cookbook, the Friendship Club Cook Book has also been digitized as part of this collection and may have included members from campus.
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 archive), 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.
- Cookie Book Archive, We EnergiesAnnual Christmas cookie recipe booklets compiled and distributed by We Energies (formerly as Wisconsin Electric Power Company and The Electric Company).
- Cooking Up History, Wisconsin Historical SocietyExplore Wisconsin history by viewing a collection of recipes drawn from Wisconsin digital newspaper collections and digital newspapers from Wisconsin in Chronicling America.
- Dr. Jacqueline M. Newman Chinese Cookbook Collection, Stony Brook University, University LibrariesSee also, the research guide "Chinese Culinary History" (and its links to e-books): https://guides.library.stonybrook.edu/newman
- EUVS Vintage Cocktail BooksDigital library hosted by the Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiritueux, Museum, Île de Bendor, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
- 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.
- 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.
- Recipe Books, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DCEarly modern English manuscript recipe books, with links to Folger's catalogue records, full-text searchable images, and transcriptions available as plain text documents and as PDF reading copies.
- Recipes and Remedies: Manuscript Cookbooks, The New York Academy of MedicineDigital collection of eleven English-language manuscript receipt books, compiled between the seventeenth and the late nineteenth centuries, in which the majority of the collected recipes are culinary in nature.
- 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 (select online from location button).
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.
- Amerine (Maynard) Wine Label CollectionIncludes labels from domestic and foreign wines and spirits. Most labels date between 1874-1969, though some date as late as 1992. UC-Davis Library Digital Collections.
- Apron Memories and Tie One On...An apron, of Course!Curator EllynAnne Geisel of Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of American Recollections continues the journey with site, book links, and traveling exhibit.
- Jerry Chicone Jr. Citrus Crate Label Collection, Digital Collections, George A. Smathers Library, University of FloridaCollection consists of 3,000 labels from Florida as well as 122 labels from Spain.
- Lug and Can Label Collection, UC-Davis Library Digital CollectionsMore than 4,800 labels created for containers of fruits, vegetables, and other produce and food goods. These labels record packaging and marketing innovations between circa 1890-1970.
- Taking America to Lunch, Smithsonian, National Museum of American History (lunchboxes)Website for this exhibition has been retired. To view lunchboxes in the Smithsonian collections, search: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search
- 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 7000 items.
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 third floor of the library.
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
- Amerine (Maynard) Menu CollectionCollection of over 1,500 menus and wine lists. UC-Davis Library Digital 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