Libraries & Collections at Rutgers: Special Collections and University Archives: Sinclair New Jersey Collection:
Sinclair Jerseyana Cookbooks

Introduction

As "the most comprehensive, most extensive compilation of New Jersey materials in existence" (see Collection Development Policy Statement), The Sinclair Jerseyana Collection includes a significant body of New Jersey cookbooks written and compiled by various local and regional groups active throughout the state during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Twentieth century publications make up the collection's largest category of materials, with its post WWII publications constituting its most active area of development.

History

Until early 1998, The Libraries provided access to its Jerseyana cookbook collection through RLIN and through its online public access catalog, IRIS, through item level cataloging. This changed in 1998, when The Libraries began to explore multiple forms of accessing Jerseyana cookbooks, in part reflecting the deepening strength and importance of the collection. While continuing to maintain traditional item level cataloging for New Jersey cookbooks published before 1901, The Libraries now provides access to those cookbooks published after 1901 through IRIS and through the Special Collections and University Archives Web, via a combination of collection level catalog records and electronic finding-aids. To assist library clients in locating materials in the Sinclair Jerseyana cookbook collection, the following modes of access have been described.

Access

All Jerseyana cookbooks bearing imprint dates between 1901 and 1950, and received for processing after January, 1998, are represented in IRIS by a single collection-level record Cookbooks written in New Jersey between 1901 and 1949. Similarly, those published after 1950, and received for processing after January, 1998, are represented in IRIS by a collection-level record, Cookbooks written in New Jersey after 1950. Finding aids for each subcollection (marked up in HTML), consist of a complete list of bibliographical citations organized by geographical sublocation within New Jersey in alphabetical order.

Materials received for processing before January, 1998 are cataloged as item-level records in IRIS.

Finding Aids

The finding aids corresponding to the two collection level records can be accessed below:

• Sinclair Jerseyana Cookbooks, 1900-1949
• Sinclair Jerseyana Cookbooks, 1950-1999
• Sinclair Jerseyana Cookbooks, 2000-present

Further Reading

Bower, Anne L., ed. Recipes for Reading: Community Cookbooks, Stories, Histories. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, c1997.

Brown, Eleanor and Brown, Bob. Culinary Americana : Cookbooks Published in the Cities and Towns of the United States of America During the Years from 1860 through 1960. Forward by Clifton Fadiman. New York: Roving Eye Press, c1961.

Cook, Margaret. "New Jersey's Charitable Cooks: A Checklist of Fund-Raising Cook Books Published in New Jersey (1879-1915)." The Journal of The Rutgers University Library, Vol. xxxv, 1 (Dec. 1971): 15-26.