Women's History Month 2018: Community Cookbooks

(c) Gena Philibert-Ortega

Come on! You knew I couldn't get through a Women's History Month series without talking about the importance of community cookbooks!

Community cookbooks are a city directory of women. They can include:

• Name
• Date
• Place
• Organization or religious affiliation
• Hints regarding familial relationships and ethnic background
• Community advertisements
• Food history
• Organization history

They are a wonderful source for researching women from the late 19th century to the present day. The problem is in  finding the community cookbooks you need. In some cases, it could be a home source. Otherwise, looking in a variety of places including libraries, eBay, and local used bookstores can be a good start.

Resources
Legacy Webinars - Researching Women: Community Cookbooks and What They Tell US About Our Ancestors

Food. Family.Ephemera

Bower, Anne. Recipes for Reading: Community Cookbooks, Stories, Histories. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.