CHoW/DC seeks to promote a greater awareness of culinary history as a field of study, as well as support and explore the culinary foodways in our own region.
CHoW/DC Culinary History Collection at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Smithsonian Culinary History Collection
The CHoW/DC Culinary History Collection contains more than 300 books on widely varied culinary history topics, donated by CHoW members. The collection is shelved at the National Museum of American History and at the Smithsonian’s space in Suitland, Maryland, and is available online at http://siris-libraries.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile
CHoW members have also made contributions to the NMAH Archives’ extensive collection of product cookbooks, also available for use by scholars and researchers who make an appointment with the Archives.
Field Trips
From a behind-the-scenes look at the kitchen in the Woodrow Wilson House, a local producer of authentic Polish-style mead, or an orchard growing the same apples that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington did, CHoW members explore local and historical foodways in the field.
CHoW Goes to Market
In this new endeavor, members research, present, and demonstrate historic, regional, and seasonal recipes at local farm markets, linking shoppers not only to locally produced food, but to the stories of history.
In years’ past, CHoW has explored Spring produce at the Olney Farmers and Artists Market, particularly green salads, using A Quaker Woman’s Cookbook, The Domestic Cookery of Elizabeth Ellicott Lea by William Woys Weaver (2004)
Elizabeth Ellicott Lea (1793-1858) was born to a well-off Quaker Maryland family. Widowed at a young age, she had a special concern for women being prepared to run their households as well as a love of gardening and cooking. Her cookbook, first self-published in 1845, is considered one of the classics of early American food writing and many of her recipes are useful today especially for cooks and gardeners in the Mid-Atlantic.
See her green salad recipe.
As the season shifted, CHoW visited at the Olney Farmers and Artists Market to explore fruit with The Virginia Housewife Or, Methodical Cook by Mary Randolph (1993)
Mary Randolph (1762-1828) was also born to a wealthy Virginia family related to the Custis, Washington, and Jefferson families. Mary Randolph and her husband owned a tobacco plantation on the James River where she managed an enslaved staff and gained a reputation for hospitality and fine food. But by 1808 the family was impoverished and Mary opened a boardinghouse. In 1824 she published The Virginia Housewife, which is considered the first truly American cookbook, the first regional American cookbook, and the first Southern cookbook. She captures summer produce in Raspberry Vinegar.
At the Dupont Circle Fresh Farm Market, CHoW explored the theme of Elections and Politics with recipes from political fundraising and politically-themed cookbooks. These baked goods exemplified the American tradition of election cakes that serve a crowd. Try recipes for a reporter’s election night fruitcake, a first lady’s pear cake, and more.