LibGuides: Archives and Special Collections: Rare Books

About the Rare Book Collection

The Rare Book Collection contains about 1,000 rare books related to culinary history, dating from the 16th century through the 20th century. Most are in English or French. Authors represented include Athenaeus, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Marie Antonin Carême, Urbain Dubois, Auguste Escoffier, and Pierre Francois La Varenne.

Information on using the Rare Book Collection

Historical Culinary Books and Pamphlets Online

Digitized Rare Books - Virginia Tech
Browse a list of digitized rare books from the Culinary History Collection at Virgina Tech University Libraries that are available as pdfs.
Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project
The Feeding America project is digital library of important American cookbooks published between 1798 and 1922. Browse the books by title or date, or search the full-text. From Michigan State University.
Historic Cookbooks Online
This site contains links to online versions of historical cookbooks. Browse by time period (through World War I) or author. Some of the urls are broken, but a quick google search of the title should pull up a digitized version of the text.
Home Economics and Household Collection - UNCG Digital Collections
“The Home Economics Pamphlets Collection consists of government and commercial publications on the subject of home management and nutrition and includes educational materials, recipes, household hints, and other materials.” From the University of North Carolina - Greensboro
Internet Archive Cookbook and Home Economics Collection
Little Cookbooks: The Alan and Shirley Brocker Collection
Michigan State University Libraries
Vintage Cookbooks Online
This site contains links to online versions of historical cookbooks. Browse by time period (from pre-1800 to 1939) or by topic (ethnic cookbooks, children's cookbooks, or other language).