American Cookery Amelia Simmons 1815 Historic New England Collection

Recipe from American Cookery

Originally published in 1796, American Cookery, by Amelia Simmons, was the first American cookbook written for the American reader. Prior to that time, British cookbooks had been the source of recipes in the colonies. Little is known of Amelia Simmons, who worked as a domestic servant and gathered her cooking expertise from experience. Her book points out the practical ways of judging the quality of meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, and herbs, and presents the best methods of preparing and cooking them. Her sound suggestions for choosing the freshest and tenderest vegetables have stood the test of time.

Most importantly Amelia Simmons offered the first uniquely American recipes using corn meal for Indian pudding, Johnny cake, and Indian slapjacks, as well as the first recipes for pumpkin pudding, winter squash pudding, and brewing spruce beer. The words “cookie” and “slaw” even made their first published appearance the book.

A copy of the 1815 edition of American Cookery by Amelia Simmons is on display in the America’s Kitchens exhibition at the museum through January 17, 2010.

A reproduction of American Cookery is also available for sale in the museum store and online.

Yoke Apron F. W. Woolworth & Co. United States c. 1950 Cotton Gift of Lorraine Sanborn View More Aprons

Aprons are powerful symbols of women and their lives. Much more than a covering to protect the wearer's clothing, women’s aprons evoke images of home, good food, and the security of a mother’s loving arms. Some were store bought, but many were homemade, coming in as many different shapes and styles as the people who wore them.

The Society recently asked for and received 12 aprons to add to its 20th-century collection. Among them is one worn by Yvonne (Evon) Guay Russilillo (1896–1992) of Laconia. Yvonne immigrated from Canada to the United States with her family around 1910. The donor, her eldest grandchild, remembers her grandmother wearing this apron as she worked in the garden and cooked for her family. The apron was likely purchased at the Woolworth's store in Laconia.

This and other recently acquired aprons are on display as part of the America’s Kitchens exhibition currently on view at the Society's museum.

Christmas Trees Inn, Marlow, c. 1900. New Hampshire Historical Society collection.

PC Connection, 2004. Photographed by Peter E. Randall.

Old and new images come together in the exhibition New Hampshire Then & Now. Produced by the New Hampshire Historical Society, New Hampshire Then & Now features 40 pairs of photographs of unique places, people, and events that depict the character and culture of New Hampshire, past and present. The exhibition is on view at The Fells Historic Estate & Gardens on Lake Sunapee through October 12, 2009.

Based on the book of the same title by photographer, author, and publisher Peter E. Randall, the exhibition uses the powerful medium of photography to provide visitors with a diverse visual overview of New Hampshire, comparing sites and people across the state, between the late 19th century and today. Randall began this project by searching through the photograph collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society and other organizations, choosing historical images, and then finding and photographing the modern site.

Randall’s book, New Hampshire Then & Now, is available at the Society’s museum store and online.

Silas Ketchum c. 1880 New Hampshire Historical Society Collection View images

In 1874 Reverend Silas Ketchum of Hopkinton donated his entire “early 1800s school book collection” to the New Hampshire Historical Society. The collection included a comprehensive array of 512 volumes covering every subject you’d suspect and some you wouldn’t — from reading, writing, and arithmetic texts to more arcane works such as Physiology for Children (1845), A System of Elocution with Special Emphasis to Gesture... (1843), and An Introduction to the Art of Penmanship (1822). The collection also included many teachers' manuals, dictionaries, and atlases.

In the spring of this year, two of the Society's museum teachers, Julie Billings and Joyce Hill, rediscovered the “Ketchum Collection” and reviewed over 300 of the text books to enhance the education outreach program entitled “Going to School.” The unit shows today’s students what students were taught over a century ago and how subjects have changed over time. Pages from these texts will be copied and laminated for classroom students to compare content to the books used today. Particularly interesting to Julie and Joyce was the discovery that many of the teachers’ manuals describe techniques that are now being recycled as a “new method” of teaching. As educators with many years of experience, they were very impressed with educational methods in the 1800s. They respected the challenges met by teachers who were expected to instruct a diverse age group with irregular attendance patterns.

A small display of items from the “Ketchum Collection”, including the text books mentioned above, is on view at the Society’s library through September 15, 2009.

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The mission of the New Hampshire Historical Society is to educate a diverse public about the significance of New Hampshire's past and its relationship to our lives today. In support of this mission, the Society collects, preserves, and interprets materials pertaining to New Hampshire history.

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