Lydia Maria Child – Early American Cookbooks

Authors chart

The most prolific authors in the collection are the famous names of 19th century cooking: Catharine Beecher, Lydia Maria Child, Julia Corson, Fannie Farmer, Marion Harland, Eliza Leslie, Mary J. Lincoln, Marion Harris Neil, Maria Parloa, Sarah Tyson Rorer, and Maria Eliza Rundell. These women’s books went through multiple editions and printings and reached millions of American households.

Other notable authors include Ella Eaton Kellogg, health food advocate and wife of John Harvey Kellogg, William A. Alcott, first president of the American Vegetarian Association, Rufus Estes, African-American railway chef, and Jessup Whitehead, chef and restauranteur.

eac-author-chart

Frugal cookbooks

Frugality has a long history in America. The Frugal Housewife by Susannah Carter (first edition 1772) was one of the first cookbooks to be published in the United States. Later books on the same theme included A new system of domestic cookery, formed upon principles of economy by Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell (1814), The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Child (1835), and Economical cookery by Marion Harris Neil (1918).

Did frugal cookbooks differ markedly from other cookbooks? A text analysis comparison shows some interesting results.

Was the word “frugal” a common term in cookbooks? Did if fall in and out of favor over time? Check out the timeline chart of when the word appears in the Early American Cookbooks collection