Leeds University Library's Cookery Collection: Difference between revisions

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'''Leeds University LibraryLibraries's Cookery Collection''' is one of the five [[Designation Scheme|Designated]] collections held by the [[Brotherton Library]] at the [[University of Leeds]]. It comprises an extensive collection of international books, manuscripts and archives relating to food, cooking and culinary culture.

The collection began with a donation in 1939 to the Library of 1,500 books and a selection of manuscripts. The collection has grown since and been supplemented with further donations. It now consists of more than 8,000 printed cookery books and 75 manuscripts, spanning the period 2500 BC to present day, with the majority of the works from the early 16th–20th century.<ref name="'Also of Interest', Cookery Printed Books">{{cite web|title='Also of Interest', Cookery Printed Books|url=https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/43229/cookery_printed_books|website=Special Collections|publisher=Leeds University Library|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref>

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After the death in 2006 of [[Michael Bateman]], the food writer and journalist,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jaine|first1=Tom|title=Obituary: Michael Bateman|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/30/guardianobituaries.media|accessdate=5 April 2017|work=The Guardian|date=30 March 2006}}</ref> Leeds University Library received his collection of international cookery books in 2011.<ref name="Monday Library Chat" /> Special Collections also holds an archive of his papers from his career as a food writer.<ref>{{cite web|title=Michael Bateman Archive|url=https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/33601|website=Special Collections|publisher=Leeds University Library|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref>

=== Previously held Collectionscollections ===

Some material already held by the Brotherton Library and related to cookery has since been associated with the Cookery Collection.<ref name="Cookery Collections Guide"/> These include [[#Chaston Brewing|Alfred Chaston Chapman]]’s collection of books about beer and brewery which was donated to Leeds University Library in 1939.<ref name="A Descriptive Guide">{{cite book|last1=Offor|first1=Richard|title=A Descriptive Guide to the Libraries of the University of Leeds|date=1947|publisher=Brotherton Library|pages=51–55|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XwQZAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><ref name="Chaston Chapman notebooks">{{cite web|title=Chaston Chapman notebooks|url=https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/167087|website=Special Collections|publisher=Leeds University Library|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref>

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{{further|English cuisine}}

Cookery A consists of British printed cookery books.<ref name="Cookery Collections Guide"/> Among the major works held are four copies of [[Hannah Woolley]]’s ''[[The Queen-Like Closet]]''. The earliest edition is from 1672.<ref name="A Descriptive Guide"/><ref name="The queen-like closet">{{cite web|title=The Queen-Like Closet|url=http://lib.leeds.ac.uk/record=b1804470|website=Special Collections|publisher=Leeds University Library|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref> Woolley was one of the first women in England who earned a living from writing and selling books.<ref>{{cite webODNB|title=Biography of Woolley, Hannah|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29957|websiteyear=ODNB2004 |publisherdoi=Oxford10.1093/ref:odnb/29957 Dictionary of National Biography|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref> There are two copies of ''Pomona: or the Fruit Garden Illustrated'' (1729) written by the English garden designer, [[Batty Langley]];<ref name="Pomona: or the Fruit Garden illustrated">{{cite web|title=Pomona: or the Fruit Garden illustrated|url=https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/221291|website=Special Collections|publisher=Leeds University Library|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref> the book is a gardener's manual for growing, picking and preserving fruits, as well as pruning and caring for plants.<ref name="Monday Library Chat"/> Charles Carter's ''The Complete Practical Cook'': ''or, a new system of the whole art and mystery of cookery'' (1730) is an illustrated recipe book.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Complete Practical Cook|url=https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/257821|website=Special Collections|publisher=Leeds University Library|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref> It contains copperplate engravings showing how to set and arrange a table for various courses in an 18th-century dinner.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Day|first1=Ivan|title=Charles Carter's Banniet Tort|url=http://www.historicfood.com/Banniet%20tort%20recipe.htm|website=Historic Food|accessdate=5 April 2017|archive-date=29 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229165709/http://www.historicfood.com/Banniet%20tort%20recipe.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Charles Carter cooked for nobility and specialised in French baroque cuisine.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Meal|date=2001|publisher=Oxford Symposium|page=167|isbn=9781903018248|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsNyprRS7EIC&q=The+complete+practical+cook+charles+carter|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref>

[[File:The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy Hannah Glasse.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy]]'', by [[Hannah Glasse]]]]

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== Research and outreach ==

===Research Topicstopics===

The Cookery Collection at Leeds University Library has proved to be an insightful research resource for scholars.

*[[Cookbook|Cookery books]] are sources for attitudes, practices, trade and linguistics from a range of historical periods. The study of the Cookery Collection's early cook books can shed light on the social and economic characteristics of past societies.<ref name="The English Cookery Book"/>

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*In many cases the Cookery Collection at Leeds University Library holds long sequences of editions of outstanding works by popular authors such as [[Mrs Beeton]] and [[Hannah Glasse]].<ref name="Beeton">{{cite web|title=Works by Mrs Beeton|url=https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/participant/14954|website=Special Collections|publisher=Leeds University Library|accessdate=12 April 2017}}</ref><ref name="Glasse">{{cite web|title=Works by Hannah Glasse|url=https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/participant/46216|website=Special Collections|publisher=Leeds University Library|accessdate=12 April 2017}}</ref> These long runs and multiple copies mean that a text's development across editions can be studied. Innovations and changes in the book and printing industry can also be observed.<ref name="Medical"/><ref name="Cookery Collections Guide"/>

* Other focuses of the Cookery Collection include British cooking, French cooking, Chinese cooking, gardening, beer and brewery and wine and wine-making.<ref name="Cookery Collections Guide"/>

* An undergraduate internship programme through the Digital Creativity and Cultures Hub at the University of Leeds<ref>{{Cite web |title=Internship Programme {{!}} Digital Creativity and Cultures Hub |url=https://dcch.leeds.ac.uk/internship-programme/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=dcch.leeds.ac.uk}}</ref> has been exploring how to make the collection more accessible and engaging through innovative digital technology including [[Artificial intelligence|AI]]-assisted transcription of manuscripts.<ref name=":0">''Collections as data: Remixing special collections with Digital Tools'' (2024) ''YouTube''. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DpLT0aDqSo (Accessed: 19 June 2024).</ref> The project has also experimented with [[Generative artificial intelligence|generative AI]] to create images of what the recipes might have looked like.<ref name=":0" />

=== Historians ===

The Cookery Collection at Leeds University Library has informed an array of publications. [[C. Anne Wilson]] was aan member ofassistant stafflibrarian at the Brotherton Library and catalogued the [[#John Preston's donation|Preston donation]] to the Leeds University Library Cookery Collection in 1964. This inspired her interest in food history. She went on to found the Leeds Symposium on Food History in 1986, so the Brotherton Library's Cookery Collection was integral to the establishment of the Symposium.<ref name="The English Cookery Book"/> The Leeds Symposium has held annual meetings for the discussion of food history and the presentation of papers since 1986.<ref name="Leeds Symposium">{{cite web|title=History|url=http://www.leedsfoodsymposium.org.uk/History.html|website=Leeds Symposium on Food History|accessdate=6 April 2017}}</ref> C. Anne Wilson wrote ''Food and Drink in Britain'' (1973) which draws on the Cookery Collection's early cook books.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Anne|title=Food and Drink in Britain: from the Stone Age to recent times|date=1973|publisher=Cookery Book Club|isbn=0-09-456040-4|pages=11–12}}</ref>

She wrote ''The Book of Marmalade'' which was published in 1985. In it, she cites the Cookery Collection:

"Many of the older recipe books consulted are among those in the Blanche Leigh and John F Preston collections of early cookery books in the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Anne|title=The Book of Marmalade|date=1985|publisher=Constable|isbn=0-09-465670-3|page=14}}</ref>

C. Anne Wilson edited ''Luncheon, Nuncheon and Other Meals: Eating with the Victorians'' (1994) and ''The Country Kitchen Garden 1600–1950'' (1998). Both of these books mention the Brotherton Library's Cookery Collection in their acknowledgements.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Anne|title=Luncheon, Nuncheon and Other Meals: Eating with the Victorians|date=1994|publisher=Alan Sutton Publishing|isbn=0-7509-0528-X|page=viii}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Anne|title=The Country Kitchen Garden 1600–1950 (In association with the National Trust)|date=1998|publisher=Sutton Publishing|isbn=0-7509-1423-8|page=x}}</ref>

Eileen White iswas a food historian specialising in domestic English cookery in the 15th and 16th centuries.<ref>{{cite book|title=About the Author|id={{ASIN|1903018366|country=uk}}}}</ref>

White edited and contributed to ''The English Cookery Book: Historical Essays'', based on papers from the 16th Leeds Symposium on Food History held in March 2001. The book celebrates the Cookery Collection at Leeds University Library and pays tribute to its value for researchers. Illustrations in the book are taken from the Brotherton Library's collection.<ref name="The English Cookery Book"/>

White also edited ''Feeding a City: York'' (2000) and ''The English Kitchen: Historical Essays'' (2007), which also acknowledge the Brotherton Library's Cookery Collection.<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Eileen|title=Feeding a City: York; The Provision of Food from Roman Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century|date=2000|publisher=Prospect Books|isbn=1-903018-02-1|pages=14, 256}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Eileen|title=The English Kitchen: Historical Essays|date=2007|publisher=Prospect Books|isbn=978-1-903018-50-7|page=6}}</ref>

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* [http://www.leedsfoodsymposium.org.uk/index.html Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions]

* [http://www.historicfood.com/ Historic Food, website of Ivan Day (food writer)]

*[http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/ Incunabula Short Title Catalogue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118093805/http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/ |date=18 November 2021 }}

* [http://prospectbooks.co.uk/img/EnglishCookeryBook.pdf The English Cookery Book: Preface and Chapter One]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:CollectionsCatering education in the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:Food historians|*]]

[[Category:Literary archives in the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:Rare book libraries]]

[[Category:Special collections libraries in England]]

[[Category:Works about food and drink]]

[[Category:University of Leeds]]

[[Category:Rare book libraries]]

[[Category:Special collections libraries]]