Call Number:

Ms. Codex 2176

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1 volume(s)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Louise Bowman cookbook, circa 1930s, Ms. Codex 2176, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

circa 1930s (inclusive)

Creator:

Bowman, Louise, active circa 1830s

Form:

Cookbooks

Abstract:

This volume contains 87 culinary recipes in addition to printed material from a cooking class, including information on cooking and several recipes. It was compiled by Louise Bowman in the 1930s in the United States.

Little is known about Louise Bowman, who created this volume.

Due to the presence of notes and experiments, and the nature of recipes in this volume, it was possibly created during the course of a cooking or home economics class.

Increased literacy and access to printed material in the 19th century led to an abundance of literature on homemaking and the 1862 Morrill Act established land-grants for colleges and mandated that those colleges offered instruction in "practical areas of endeavor." As many of these colleges were open to women, this mandate led to the creation of formal courses in domestic science and the principles of domesticity in the late 19th century.

The term "home economics" became standard at the 1899 Lake Placid Conferences and, by 1908, conference participants formed the American Home Economics Association which successfully lobbied for funding for the research and teaching of home economics.

Sources:

"About Home Economics ." HEARTH, Cornell University Library Digital Collections, digital.library.cornell.edu/collections/hearth/about. Accessed 11 Mar. 2024.

"History of Home Economics." Home Economics and Household Management, Middlebury College, sites.middlebury.edu/homeec/history-of-home-economics/. Accessed 11 Mar. 2024.

This volume contains 87 culinary recipes in addition to printed material from a cooking class, including information on cooking and several recipes. It was compiled by Louise Bowman in the 1930s in the United States.

This volume begins with printed material from a cooking class, including required tools and equipment, rules, preparation and care of tools and equipment, table setting instructions, and tables of measurements and equivalents (p. 2-10). There are also numerous recipes clipped from the same printed material and provided in this volume with handwritten instructions, including spiced apples (p. 11), milk toast (p. 15), glazed sweet potatoes (p. 29), and nut brittle (p. 33).

There are additionally fully handwritten recipes in this volume, written in at least two hands. Examples of these recipes include corn meal muffins (p. 41), milkless, eggless, butterless cake (p. 47), olive oil pickles (p. 56), devil's food cake (p. 63), Pillsbury's cake flour recipes' two egg cake (p. 69), Ethel Keep's quick cup cakes (p. 78), and Shirley MacKellan's maple nut cake (p. 79).