Call Number:

Ms. Codex 2231

Repository:

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

Extent:

1 volume(s)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Joseph D. Austin recipe book, 1867, Ms. Codex 2231, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1867

Creator:

Austin, Joseph D.

Form:

Codices (bound manuscripts)

Abstract:

This volume contains 63 medicinal and personal care recipes written and compiled by Joseph D. Austin in Philadelphia, PA in 1867.

The creator of this volume, Joseph D. Austin, may have been an architect from Philadelphia, PA listed in the 1867 Philadelphia City Directory as living at 2054 Master Street. If this is the correct Joseph D. Austin, he was born in South Carolina around 1848 and married Susan B. Austin in 1873. Together they had a daughter, Marian Austin.

There is a recipe for Godfrey's Cordial in this volume. It was a remedy containing opium used to treat a variety of ailments. It was invented in the early 18th century and its formula was first published in The Lancet in 1823. It was widely given to infants and children in England and the United States in the late 18th and early-to-mid 19th centuries and was referred to as a "mother's friend." Anecdotally, some nurses used it to keep babies in their care quiet. It fell out of use in the 1890s.

There is also a recipe for Jockey Club scent, a cologne created by Caswell-Massey and first introduced at the Plaza Hotel in New York in 1840 considered to be America's first sport cologne. It was notabbly popular with public figures such as John F. Kennedy.

Sources:

"History of the Scent: Jockey Club Cologne by Caswell-Massey." Caswell-Massey, www.caswellmassey.com/pages/history-jockeyclub#:~:text=The%20original%20Jockey%20Club%2C%20first,from%20Saratoga%20to%20Churchill%20Downs. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.

"Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1867." U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [Database on-Line], Ancestry.com, 2011.

T.E.C., Jr. "WHAT WERE GODFREY'S CORDIAL AND DALBY'S CARMINATIVE?" Pediatrics, 1970, Volume 45, No. 6, June 1970.

"Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 47, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1414; Page: 4b; Enumeration District: 1204; FHL Microfilm: 1375427 ." 1910 United States Federal Census [Database on-Line], Ancestry.com, 2006.

This volume contains 63 medicinal and personal care recipes written and compiled by Joseph D. Austin in Philadelphia, PA in 1867.

It is bound in half leather on marble paper boards. The spine has been rebound and several pages have been torn out, though it does not appear that any text is missing. The latter portion of the volume is blank (p. 50-126).

Most of the recipes in this volume are for medical remedies or personal care products, but there are also a few recipes for drinks. There are numerous recipes for hair concerns and for coughs.

Examples of recipes in this volume include cologne (p. 4), artificial cider (p. 5), cough syrup (p. 8), superior hair dye (p. 11), hair restorative (p. 15), balsam apple salve (p. 17), infallible cure for the whooping cough (p. 19), Jacob Jones' cure for cancer (p. 20), Godfrey's cordial (p. 21), hemorrhage (p. 24), hop bitters (p. 26), jockey club (p. 28), sarsaparilla (p. 32), consumption cure (p. 36), remedy for suppressed menses (p. 39), arnica (p. 44), and shampoo (p. 49).