(Rare Books & Manuscripts)
The BPL's growing Community Cookbook Collection documents the culinary history of New England communities. The collection contains cookbooks created by churches, synagogues, schools, hospitals, benevolent societies, and other organizations, with a selection of historically significant cookbooks from other regions included for context.
Community cookbooks are rich sources for the study and analysis of both community foodways and cultural history more generally. Typically compiled by women and published to raise funds, they are highly local productions that invariably reflect the values and aspirations of the communities in which they were produced. To survey BPL's collection online, you can search our catalog for the title Community Cookbook Collection (Boston Public Library). Specific cookbooks can be viewed in person in the Special Collections reading room.
Do you have cookbooks to donate?
The Community Cookbook Collection continues to grow through purchases and via donation of cookbooks to the library. If you have community cookbooks that you are interested in donating to the BPL’s collection, we'd love to learn more! Please fill out our Special Collections donation form!
