LibGuides: History: Food History Digital Primary Sources

CIA Archives & Special Collections

The Culinary Institute of America's Archives and Special Collections collects materials related to the history of the college, a world-renowned collection of over 30,000 historical menus, culinary-related rare books, historical recipe pamphlets, and much more! Housed on the main floor of the Conrad N. Hilton Library, the Archives and Special Collections are open to faculty, staff and students, as well as to outside visitors and researchers.

If you are interested in learning more about the Archives or locating a specific item please contact Nicole Semenchuk.

Email: n_semenc@culinary.edu

Phone: 845-451-1270

Quick links:

Search the Digital Menu Collection

Explore the Archives and Special Collections

Online Digital Collections

Cookbooks, manuscripts, recipes, and more culinary history artifacts.

Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project - Michigan State University Library The Feeding America project has created an online collection of some of the most important and influential American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century. The digital archive includes page images of 76 cookbooks from the Michigan State University Library's collection as well as searchable full-text transcriptions.
Key Ingredients: America by Food - Smithsonian Institution
Hathi Trust Food Studies Collection Catalog of digital books on Cooking, Gastronomy, food production, etc. from many collections.
HEARTH Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History - Cornell University A core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines published between 1850 and 1950.
Southern Foodways Alliance - documents, images/photos, oral histories Documents, studies, and explores the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. A member-supported organization based at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
Cookbook and Home Economics Collection - UCLA The Cookbook and Home Economics Collection includes books from the Young Research Library Department of Special Collections at UCLA, The Bancroft Library at The University of California, Berkeley, and the Prelinger Library.
Culinary History Collection - Digitized Rare Books - Virginia Tech University Libraries
Szathmary Culinary Manuscripts and Cookbooks Handwritten cookbooks, circa 1600s-1960s, documenting culinary history in America and Europe and how tastes have changed over the years. From the University of Iowa Digital Library.
National Agricultural Library Digital Collections Historic USDA documents, trade publications and agricultural reports.
USDA Farmers' Bulletins The United States Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletins were produced to disseminate information about agricultural topics. This collection includes bulletins published between the 1880's and the 1980's. From the University of North Texas Library.
Cookery and Culture Digital Collection - Utah State University Archives The digitized historical cookbooks in this collection date from the 1700s to the 1900s. Mostly American and British, they contain not only recipes, but also elegant engravings of table settings and cooking paraphernalia, home remedies and cure-all tonics, instructions on managing servants, and more. From the Merrill-Cazier Library’s Special Collections & Archives at Utah State University.
Mexican Cookbook Collection - University of Texas at San Antonio https://digital.utsa.edu/digital/custom/mexicancookbooks
Culinary History and Cookbook Collection - Texas Woman's University Library
Little Cookbooks - Michigan State University Libraries Food and cookery related publications produced primarily by companies in the United States from the late nineteenth century up to the present. The collection provides a rich resource to study the evolution and history of advertising, food products, individual companies, technology, food preparation, and food production. It was organized, described, and donated in 2005 by Shirley Brocker Sliker, who continues to add items to the collection.
The Recipe for Victory: Food and Cooking in Wartime - University of Wisconsin-Madison Books and government publications documenting the national effort to promote and implement a plan to make food the key to winning World War I. Within the collection are materials explaining the world food situation, the nutritional value of foods, how to grow productive gardens in less than ideal conditions, and cookbooks with recipes for dealing with scarcity of various commodities such as meat and wheat. Included are works published between 1917 and 1919 in the United States and England.
Advertising Cookbooks at Duke University

Digital Menu Collections

Culinary Institute of America Digital Menu Collection
New York Public Library Menu Collections
What’s on the Menu? Help Transcribe the NYPL Menu Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Menu Collection
Menus: the Art of Dining - University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Nestlé Library Menu Collection at Cornell university
Historical Menu Collections, University of Washington Libraries
National Restaurant Association Menu Collection at Johnson & Wales University Library
Transportation Library Menu Collection at Northwestern University
Menus at the Nobel Banquet Only in French from 1901 to 2004. Translations in English and Swedish are available from 2005.