Andrew F. Smith Collection of Cookery Ephemera
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Abstract
Andrew F. Smith (born 1946) is a culinary and food consultant, historian, lecturer, and writer. The Andrew F. Smith Collection of Cookery Ephemera, dating from 1798 to 2009 (bulk dates: 1850-1950), was collected to inform and support Smith's scholarship in the food studies field. The collection contains manuscripts and published materials including recipe booklets, food labels, food advertisements, clippings, circulars, and serials that document the promotional practices of early American culinary corporations and the consumer habits of average Americans during the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.
Biographical Note
Andrew F. Smith (born 1946) is a culinary and food consultant, historian, lecturer, and writer. Smith was the editor-in-chief for the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink and Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City; and is the author of many other titles including the three-volume Food in America. He serves as the editor for Reaktion Press's Edible series and teaches food studies courses at the New School University in New York City.
Arrangement
The Andrew F. Smith Collection of Cookery Ephemera retains Smith's original arrangement in which items are alphabetically organized into files by corporation, individual author, or social organization name; by subject, such as coffee or tomato research; or by genre. Corporate names that are preceded by personal names are arranged under the first name or initial; for example, Joseph Campbell Company is listed under "Joseph," and H. J. Heinz is listed under "H." The container list includes bibliographic citations for many, but not all, items found in the collection.
Scope and Contents
The Andrew F. Smith Collection of Cookery Ephemera dates from 1798 to 2009 (bulk dates: 1850-1950) and contains materials used in support of Smith's professional contributions to American culinary history and food studies as a consultant, educator, and writer. This material served as a study collection on the history of the industrialization of the United States food system; in addition, Smith compiled the collection to facilitate research about the problems created by this industrial food system and its alternatives. These materials also served to illustrate connections between the cultural, economic, historical, social, and technological events that influenced American eating habits of the past and how they have shaped American eating habits of the present. To this end, materials were collected to aid study in the cultural dimensions of food, and the relationship between health and nutrition, as documented by the promotional practices of early corporate America.
Smith implemented a filing scheme that alphabetically organized items by corporation, individual author, or social organization name; by subject, such as coffee or tomato research; or by genre. Within the collection, corporate names that are preceded by personal names are arranged under the first name or initial; for example, Joseph Campbell Company is listed under "Joseph," and H. J. Heinz is listed under "H." This collection is dominated by cookery manuals and other food-related publications, including recipe booklets, circulars, and pamphlets. Many cookery manuals include more general information for the household in addition to recipes; for example, the assorted items produced by D. Ransom & Sons & Company of Buffalo, N.Y. include recipe booklets or illustrated encyclopedias with almanac-like instructional text such as astrological writing, calendars, medical advice, and statistical information. Publications that include instructional text speak to how the food industry conceived of and enforced socially acceptable behavior in terms of not only eating habits, but overall modern codes of conduct. Text of this nature appears within the collection not only in the form of commercially-released recipes, but also in early 20th century government publications such as bulletins and reports from the United States Department of Agriculture. It also appears in the publications of religious leaders, including those of Reverend William T. Findley. Other materials include promotional items such as a set of corporate stereoscopic photograph cards, which date between 1892 and 1905. While this collection is dominated by publications exclusively discussing the United States food system, the materials also include exploration of Mexican cuisine in the form of early 20th century Gebhardt Chili Powder Company recipes and The Prospects of a Banana Trade in Trinidad (1887), a pamphlet distributed by the Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Trinidad.
The Andrew F. Smith Collection of Cookery Ephemera provides a comprehensive resource on mid-19th and early 20th century American advertising practices, documenting how food companies conceived of unique public, corporate identities through text and image, in the form of brochures, catalogs, flyers, grocery lists, newsletters, food labels, and souvenirs. In addition, these corporate identities are manifested in extended narratives that discuss company origin and or values, such as in the Eerie Preserving Company's A Book of Heraldry (1893); in photographic prints of factory grounds; and in postcards featuring the interior design of a restaurant. Materials also document corporate interaction with individuals in the form of financial records such as bills and subscription forms, and also documents individual reactions to corporate materials in the form of handwritten recipes or commercially released publications with evidence of personal use.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open to researchers. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); Andrew F. Smith Collection of Cookery Ephemera; MSS 295; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Acquired from Andrew F. Smith in 2010, with an accretion donated in 2017. The accession numbers associated with these gifts are 2010.295 and 2018.118. Accession 2024.041 represents materials likely from the 2017 that were not accessioned in the 2018.118 acccretion.
Separated Materials
Almanacs, periodicals, and items that documented unique social organizations or cultural groups were removed from the collection to be cataloged.
About this Guide
Processing Information note
The collection was received in binders and plastic sleeves, and during processing, all items were rehoused in archival folders and boxes. Folder titles were created based on the corporation, individual author, or social organization name listed as the author in the collector's inventory. Loose material and items that arrived without bibliographic citations were assigned a name or genre heading and filed into the existing arrangement. In 2018, an accretion of ephemera was donated to the collection. These materials were rehoused in archival boxes and folders and intellectually arranged in accordance with the collection's existing structure.
In May 2022, conservators identified a poster for Good Luck Mayonnaise and Thanksgiving-themed ephemera on the 3rd floor that had not been accessioned. These materials were rehoused by conservators, and accessioned in November 2024, integrating them into the collection's existing intellectual order.
