Cookbook and Culinary History Collection

Women’s Studies scholars, culinary historians and all those interested in cooking and good food will enjoy visiting the Culinary Collection at the Nadine Vorhoff Library of the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women. Because cooking and eating with others are fundamental human rituals, cookbooks provide important records of tradition and change within human cultures. Since women have traditionally been responsible for preparing and serving food, cookbooks also frequently disclose historic accounts of women’s domestic experiences as well as recipes for their own culinary creations. In addition, regional cookbooks document the rich cultural history and heritage of our population, including Creoles, Cajuns and African-Americans

The Culinary History Collection was established in 1992 with gifts of two rather sizeable collections of historic and contemporary cookbooks. The Courtney Werner Collectiondates primarily from the first half of the twentieth century and contains many specialty books featuring such topics as cooking with herbs and spices and the varieties of cooking particular to different regions of the United States. Perhaps the most impressive is the large selection of international cookbooks, many of which are published in their original languages. The Stella Adams Collectiondates from the second half of the twentieth century and includes a great variety of southern, Louisiana, New Orleans and women’s groups cookbooks. An unusual example from this collection is Bon Melange (1976) a homemade book from the Amigas Club of Thibodaux, featuring original recipes for Louisiana specialties.

The Center organized, added to and focused the volumes into the largest and most comprehensive collection in the city. It now contains over two thousand cookbooks as well as a small manuscript collection on housekeeping in the South. The books and papers date from the 1810s to the present, with the oldest manuscript (1817) showing the records of a family from Pennsylvania as they made their way South and an 1826 book, Nouvel Almanach des Gourmandes, illuminating how a French family might have cooked. The collection also contains reproductions of other early books, including a photocopy of the first cookbook marketed specifically to New Orleanians, La Petite Cuisinère Habile (1841). Used by chefs, locals and researchers from all over the world, the collection has provided primary research material for a number of academic theses.

The Culinary Library also sponsors the work of the New Orleans Culinary
History Group and an almost annual series of programs on culinary history.
For more on some of our oral history and other work, see Culinary

 In these endeavors, the Center works with a number of other groups in New
Orleans, including the Historic New Orleans Collection, Slow Food New
Orleans, the Food and Beverage Museum, and other groups.