Barbara Haber, a noted women's history librarian and culinary historian, discussed feminism and food in a Library talk sponsored by the Science, Technology and Business Division on Aug. 11.
During the emerging feminist movement in the late 1960s, the former curator of books at the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University could have been considered a radical. Although her library was building collections to support new women's studies programs, she dared to promote food history and cooking as legitimate studies relevant to women's history.
Women's history librarian Barbara Haber, left, and Rosemary Fry Plakas, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, examine some of the rare cookbooks that were on display during Haber's talk. - Gail Fineberg
"Food had been trivialized among feminists," said Haber. "Scholars could not get tenure writing about cupcakes."
Haber built the Schlesinger Library's collection from 8,000 to some 80,000 volumes, including 16,000 cookbooks and food-related books. She acquired 500 cookbooks from the American Institute of Wine and Food, donated by the grande dame of cuisine, Julia Child.
"The library was not pleased (with the cookbook collection) because they felt what I was doing was a real distortion from its main focus of women's history," she said. "But I kept on collecting anyway."
Because the library would not appropriate any money for cookbooks, Haber established the Radcliffe Culinary Friends and sponsored lectures and panel discussions by food-world notables. Special programs included Chef's First Monday, a discussion group for Boston-area restaurateurs, and an exhibition titled "No Food in the Library" at Harvard's Widener Library.
"The exhibition suggested that food was actually a field with lots to be studied," she said.
In this "huge, unexplored territory," as she called it, Haber made some contributions of her own, including writing for the "Cambridge World History of Food," "Encyclopedia of the History of American Food and Beverages" and the "Los Angeles Times"; co-editing "From Betty Crocker to Feminist Food Studies"; and writing her own tome, "From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals."
"In my book, I tried to isolate and identify chapters in American history from a women's and food perspective," she said.
Highlighting eras such as the Civil War, the Irish famine and World War II, among others, Haber used many of the Schlesinger resources at her immediate disposal, including diaries from many of the women she featured in her book.
During her talk she discussed Chapter 5, "Home Cooking in the FDR White House: The Indomitable Mrs. Nesbitt," shedding some light and possibly solving the mystery surrounding the "abominable" cuisine served at the Franklin D. Roosevelt White House. Nesbitt, the housekeeper and a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, was known for her dreary menus.
"The going joke, if you were invited for dinner, was to eat before you left," Haber quipped. "I think the only seasonings Nesbitt ever used were salt and pepper."
Haber believed Nesbitt's lack of culinary imagination was an attempt at practicality and frugality, considering that the American people were suffering from the effects of the Depression and World War II.
"She did not feel that the first family should live hog-high while the rest of the country was going through hard times," said Haber.
She also discussed the caretaker role of Confederate and Union women who served as volunteer nurses during the Civil War. Put in charge of "diet kitchens," they often ignored the menus prescribed by the attending doctors, whom she said had little knowledge of nutrition ("Whiskey and doughnuts for breakfast?") and, instead, served more comforting food—giving the wounded soldiers what they wanted.
"With the book, I had a real axe to grind. I had to prove there was something there," she concluded. "But, I think a sort of light bulb is going off and people are starting to get excited about what's going on with food studies in our country."
The Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division displayed cookbooks from its collection to augment Haber's lecture. Included was the first printed cookbook, "De Honesta Voluptate" by Bartolomeo Platina, ca. 1480, along with "American Cookery" by Amelia Simmons, ca. 1790, the first book to feature a recipe for "pumpion" (pumpkin) pie.
Other items on display, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe's "The American Woman's Home," ca. 1869, served up recipes along with sage advice on exercise, cleanliness, charitable giving and the care of children, the aged and domestic animals.
Librarians from the Science, Technology and Business Division also pulled works from the Library's collections to show such themes as wartime cookery, food reformers, and gender and cooking. These included "Private Mary Chestnut: Unpublished Civil War Diaries," Ellen H. Richards' "Art of Right Living" and "Saucepans and the Single Girl."
Several of the books, such as "Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century," "Kitchen Culture in America" and "Dinner Roles: American Women and Culinary Culture," had been used as sources in Haber's "From Hardtack to Home Fries."
Division staff members and other Library cooks consulted historic recipes to create old-fashioned treats, such as Joe Froggers, the Hartford Election Cake, family cookie and cake recipes dating back to the 1880s, including bowls of Temperance punch and the Library's Sesquicentennial punch, which was confirmed by former Deputy Librarian of Congress William Welsh to be the punch of the Library's 1950 celebration.
