Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in Broadside, the magazine of the Library of Virginia, Issue No. 1, 2025.
The Library of Virginia’s cookbook and food-related book collection numbers more than 2,500 volumes, which were produced primarily by Virginians or Virginia organizations. Acquired largely through donations, the collection documents the foodways of the state throughout history. They offer primary and secondary sources on the preparation of food, as well as the economic, social and cultural relationship to food production, procurement and consumption. Many also serve as handbooks for housekeeping, revealing the social structure of domestic life in addition to food history. Some works include information on cleaning, entertaining, managing household staff, and even treating illnesses through advice on nursing and recipes for home remedies.
In historical cookbooks, readers can trace how access to ingredients dictated regional taste, the way technological developments in food preservation and shipping expanded ingredient availability, how people adapted to shortages during wartime and economic depressions, and how immigration and migration infused new flavors and techniques into local fare. Modern authors curated historical recipes in specific contexts and placed them alongside contemporary commentaries. “The American History Cookbook” offers a comprehensive analysis of food over time, while books like “Food in Colonial and Federal America” and the “Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook” examine recipes from a specific era.
A Taste of Freedom : A Cookbook with Recipes and Remembrances from the Hampton Institute
By Carolyn Quick Tillery, Published by Citadel Press, 2002.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia: Containing Contributions from Two Hundred and Fifty of Virginia’s Noted Housewives, Distinguished for Their Skill in the Culinary Art and Other Branches of Domestic Economy
By Marion Cabell Tyree, Published by John P. Morton and Company, 1879.
The Best of Virginia Farms Cookbook & Tour Book: Recipes, People, Places
By CiCi Williamson, Published by CI Publishing, 2003.
Compiled cookbooks make up most of the collection. Composed of recipes submitted by members of communities such as churches, schools, cultural institutions, firemen, nurses, families, women’s clubs, and more, these recipe books in some cases are the sole source of information on an organization. They often record contributor names, relationships and community involvement, providing a unique source for local history and genealogical research. Typically produced by communities in a specific geographic area, these books are often prime examples of regional recipes.
The collection also includes topical cookbooks that focus on a specific ingredient or cooking style, particularly those produced in Virginia, from apples to crabs to ham and peanuts. Some cookbooks were published by Virginia corporations such as Reynolds Metals, C.F. Sauer and the Virginia Egg Council to promote their products
Virginia Cookery, Past and Present: Including a Manuscript Cook Book of the Lee and Washington Families Published for the First Time,
Olivet Episcopal Church, Fairfax Co., Published by the The Woman’s Auxiliary of Olivet Episcopal Church, 1957.
Virginia’s Old Time Peanut Recipes
By Walter Miller, Published by Bicast Publishing Co., 1997.
The Stuffed Cougar
Collegiate Schools Patrons’ Association, 1973.
To explore the Library’s cookbook and food-related book collection, search our catalog using the keyword “cooking.” You can find regional cuisines by including terms like “French,” “Japanese” or “Appalachian” or find cookbooks from a specific area by including the name of a town, city, county or state. Cookbooks on specific ingredients can be found by including the ingredient, like “eggs” or “crabs.” To view covers of recipe books from our collections, visit our Recipe Book Covers board on Pinterest.
If you have a Virginia cookbook you’d like to donate, let us know by filling out our online form.
