Call Number:

Item 0143

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

1 volume (72 pages)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0097, Item 0143, Charles J. Pederson, Food Book No. 1, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1964-1982 (inclusive)

Creator:

Pedersen, Charles J., 1904-1989

Form:

Logs (records)

Abstract:

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Charles J. Pedersen’s “Food Book No. 1” contains thirty-eight pages of gastronomical entries, including lists of food items on hand, comments on recipes, and items in the refrigerator or freezer, all arranged by date.

Charles J. Pedersen (1904-1989) was a Nobel Prize-winning chemist who worked for the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in Wilmington, Delaware. he was born in Korea to a Norwegian father and Japanese-Korean mother. Pedersen lived in Japan before moving to the United States for his studies. He began working at du Pont in 1927.

Pedersen was a co-winner of the 1987 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity. His career as a chemist at du Pont spanned forty-two years.

“Charles J. Pedersen Winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.” The Noble Prize Internet Archive. http://almaz.com/nobel/chemistry/1987c.html (accessed June 12, 2007). Pedersen, Charles J. Autobiography. Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1987, Editor Wilhelm Odelberg, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1988. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1987/pedersen-autobio.html (accessed June 12, 2007).Pedersen, Charles J., 1904-1989. LC Control Number: n 92025948. http://authorities.loc.gov (accessed June 12, 2007)Additional biographical information derived from the collection.

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Charles J. Pedersen’s “Food Book No. 1” contains thirty-eight pages of gastronomical entries, including lists of food items on hand, comments on recipes, and items in the refrigerator or freezer, all arranged by date.

This single volume food log by Nobel Prize wining scientist, Charles J. Pedersen, is dated 1964 and includes forty-eight pages detailing food stored, dishes prepared, and the results of those preparations.

Charles J. Pedersen was living in Salem, New Jersey, in August 1964 when he began this log. The seventy-two page volume includes entries ranging from August 1964 through October 1982 and is divided into sections. There are blank pages after each section.

The title page includes a table of contents which is not accurate. The first section, “foodstuffs,” pages one to nineteen, includes columns for date, foodstuff, and quantity on hand. The second section “freezer,” starts on pages twenty through twenty-three and continues on pages fifty through seventy. It includes location, foodstuff and quantity. The final section, pages thirty-six through forty-one, is titled “dishes” and includes columns for date, dish, reference, and comment. This section included notes on which cookbook was used to produce a given recipe and how that recipe was received.

The manuscript is a black, cloth-bound notebook with autograph notes and two pages laid in. It is in good condition with a small “F” [food] on the spine and front cover. The entries were all written in ink. The volume includes his name, address and the date, August 15, 1964, on the inside front cover.