Welcome to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library blog! As the special collections and archives library at the University of Kansas, Spencer is home to remarkable and diverse collections of rare and unique items. Explore the blog to learn about the work we do and the materials we collect.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created this series to provide a lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique items at Spencer. “That’s Distinctive!” is meant to show that the library has something for everyone regardless of interest. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, you can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. All collections, including those highlighted on the blog, are available for members of the public to explore in the Reading Room during regular hours.
This week on That’s Distinctive! I am sharing an item from our collection of Lawrence Public Schools (USD 497) records. The collection spans 1858 to 2022 and contains a myriad of items including records, reports, newsletters, yearbooks, and photographs. The collection consists of 144 boxes, 33 oversize boxes, 24 oversize folders, 143 video tapes, 18 audio tapes, and seven CDs. According to the collection’s finding aid, “the State of Kansas unified Lawrence schools in 1965, creating Lawrence Unified School District #497, or the Lawrence Public Schools. This was during an era when schools were consolidating across the state in part due to better transportation options.”
The pages shared below are from “Charlsia’s Cordley [Elementary School] Recipe Book.” The document is undated, although other items in the box range from 1962 to 2012. The recipe book contains various recipe entries for date cake, applesauce salad, refrigerator rolls, and more. I assume the recipes were submitted by students.
Before finding this item, I did not know that the USD 497 collection existed. I was digging through the finding aids looking for old recipes when I found this folder. I thought it would be fun to share given the school district is here in Lawrence.
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Selected pages from “Charlsia’s Cordley Recipe Book,” undated. Unified School District 497 Records. Call Number: RH MS 1255. Click images to enlarge.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
This week on That’s Distinctive! I am sharing the tastiest collection I have ever found. It houses 62 recipes from central and southern Mexico dating to the early nineteenth century. Most of the recipes are undated, though one is dated 1817. The recipes are written in Spanish and Castilian with no authors indicated, though a few – like the recipe for “marmones” – include a name that appears to be a recipient (in this case Doña Maria Rafaela Vazquez). The recipes (both loose leaf and bound) were housed in a leather wrapper when they arrived at the library. For their preservation, the recipes have been re-housed in folders, and the leather wrapper kept with the collection. Just a little fun fact: the collection was processed by our former Spanish and Portuguese Preservation and Processing student, Indira Garcia Varela, back in 2019.
The original leather wrapper in which Spencer Research Library received the recipes. Call Number: MS 346. Click image to enlarge.
A conservation document showing the condition of the recipes before treatment. Call Number: MS 346. Click image to enlarge.
Examples of recipes within the collection include directions for making “enpanadas” (as it is spelled in the manuscript), tamales, tortas, and buñuelos. I am sharing three recipes below with a translation for bodin provided by Whitney Baker, Head of Conversation Services at KU Libraries, and Dr. Milton Machuca-Galvez, Assistant Librarian for Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. The recipes shown below are titled Bodin, Reseta de las Enpanadas, and Leche de Piña.
So why this collection? Having Mexican heritage myself, stumbling upon this collection in the finding aid really tugged at my heartstrings. The more I learned about the collection, the more fascinated I became. Sifting through the recipes, there were many items and words I recognized, and it can be interesting to see how the spelling of words has changed with time. The recipes are handwritten, which helps call to mind the person who wrote down the recipe roughly two hundred years ago. I was hesitant to share items in a language other than English given much of our audience is English speaking, but the collection is too fun to not to highlight.
The recipe for reseta de las enpanadas. Call Number: MS 346. Click images to enlarge.
The recipe for leche de piña, undated. Call Number: MS 346. Click image to enlarge.
The recipe for bodin, undated. Call Number: MS 346. Click image to enlarge.
Bodin = a 1 taza de leche 2/1 de pan frances, 6 huebos, una mantequilla, pasas y almendras. Todo esto se revuelbe muy bien, y se unta el sartén con mantequilla para que no se pegue hasta que esté de punto de Xericaya
Pudding = Add to 1 cup of milk, (half a?) French bread, six eggs, butter, raisins and almonds. Mix all of this well, and rub a frying pan with butter so that it doesn’t stick until it’s at the point of [consistency of] a jericalla [a Mexican custard dessert].
The gist of the last sentence, better worded, might be, “rub a frying pan with butter so it doesn’t stick, and mix all of this well until it’s at the consistency of a jericalla [Mexican custard dessert].”
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
Coming up next week is Independence Day (July 4th). Many Fourth of July celebrations involve family get-togethers for quality time, food, and fireworks. In honor of this family time, we are sharing a cookbook out of our collections: 100 Years (1861-1961): Kansas Official Centennial Cook Book, to be exact. The book, published by the American Association of University Women in Manhattan, Kansas, shares favorite recipes of families throughout Kansas in commemoration of the state’s 100th anniversary. While we are just sharing a small portion of the recipes in the book, there are many more in its 101 pages. No matter how you celebrate the upcoming holiday, we hope it involves some good food and quality time.
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The cover of, and selected pages from, 100 years (1861-1961): Kansas Official Centennial Cook Book, 1961. Call Number: RH AK63. Click image to enlarge.
In case the
summer heat and humidity is getting to you, here are the finding aids newly
published to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library website in the last six
months. Come do some research in the cool air conditioning!
A flight attendant student at the TWA Training School practicing with a fire extinguisher. Trans World Airlines’ Hostess School Photographs. Call Number: RH PH 541. Click image to enlarge.
A recipe for “enpanadas” from an early nineteenth-century set of recipes from Mexico. These recipes – in various hands and on differently-sized pieces of paper – were originally placed together in a leather wrapper. Conservation staff recently disassembled the pages and placed them in folders. Staff included Shelley Miller Memorial Fund student Indira Garcia, who also inventoried the collection. Mexican Recipes. Call Number: MS 346. Click image to enlarge.
By the time the United States joined World War I in 1917, many were thinking ahead to the possibility of food shortages. In order to avoid mandating food rationing, the United States created a massive patriotic advertisement campaign urging individuals to substitute wheat, sugar, meat, and dairy so that these items could be sent to the troops on the front lines. Catchy headlines like “Save the Wheat, and Help the Fleet” were employed to persuade Americans to win the war by conserving much-needed food resources. It was considered to be part of your patriotic duty.
Thus, Americans buckled down and rationed food. Some of the more common substitutions included corn, rye, oats, and barley in lieu of wheat. For protein, they ate chicken, eggs, cottage cheese, fish, nuts, peas, and beans instead of bacon, beef, mutton, and pork. Table sugar, fats, and eggs were also restricted.
But, what did these modified dishes taste like? What were people on the home-front eating during a time of war?
To find out, Spencer Research Library staff organized a potluck to try some innovative recipes from World War I. Using the Kansas City Food Conservation Cookbook (RH C1550), published in 1918 with recipes pertaining to suggested food conservation and substitutions, we chose dishes to prepare for a party commemorating the centennial anniversary of World War I.
Above: Lynn (left) and Fisher (right) found a great resource for recipes
used on the home front during World War I. If you’re interested in exploring this book,
create an account or log into Aeon and request the item RH C1550.
The reference staff will retrieve it when you arrive at the reference room.)
What did we bring to the potluck?
We each picked recipes that: 1) we thought we could cook/bake, 2) the ingredients were readily available, and 3) we thought we would enjoy eating. On August 10, 2018, we gathered together in the Spencer Research Library breakroom to unveil our dishes.
From bottom left corner in the image above, clockwise: Bran cookies by Stacey Wiens, Reference Specialist; fresh garden salsa salad by Meredith Huff, Operations Manager; carrot salad by Lynn Ward, Processing Archivist; aat crackers and goat cheese by Karen Cook, Special Collections Librarian; Spanish rice by Becky Schulte, University Archivist; cheese and rice croquettes by Letha Johnson, Assistant Archivist; popcorn balls by Elspeth Healey, Special Collections Librarian; oatmeal muffins by Marcella Huggard, Manuscripts Processing Coordinator; lentil casserole and cold turkey salad by Lynn Ward, Processing Archivist; lemonade by Fisher Adwell, Library Assistant.
Meredith Huff made good use of fresh vegetables from her garden in a
delicious salsa that complemented several of the dishes.
Stacey Wiens had a warning sign with her bran cookies that read “not very sweet.”
Marcella Huggard added raisins to her muffins to make them just a little bit sweeter.
The recipe only calls for two tablespoons of sugar.
Letha Johnson, left, discloses an unexpected ingredient in her
rice and cheese croquettes: peanut butter. Who could have guessed peanut butter
and cheese would be a winning combination?
Elspeth Healey’s popcorn balls were a sticky success.
Becky Schulte’s Spanish rice was filling, tasty, and nutritious.
She used half of the beef that the recipe called for, all in the spirit of rationing.
Karen Cook’s oat crackers paired nicely with goat cheese.
Her recipe was similar to the one in the book.
Lynn Ward made turkey salad, carrot salad, and lentil casserole out of a
book she had at home (Official Recipe Book… 1918).
How did it go?
The recipes all turned out with a high degree of success. Of course, we were particular about which recipes to try. Everyone strayed away from some of the more adventurous dishes, including ones that called for fresh pigeon or canned whale. Nor did anyone bring “chicken pudding,” a recipe that calls for putting the inferior parts of a bird through a meat chopper, adding an egg or gravy to bind it together, packing it into a greased pudding bowl, and then steaming it for one and a half hours.
But still, we all enjoyed sampling the dishes. Chris Bañuelos, Audiovisual Preservation Specialist and pictured above, came to the potluck to try out the food. He remarked, “I was happily surprised at how tasty the dishes actually were. Even the bland ones helped me understand how folks did the best they could during war time.” All of our student workers were invited, and they gravitated toward the popcorn balls – which were a huge hit.
If you’re interested in doing a potluck of your own, here’s some recommendations to follow.
Try finding a cookbook from 1918. Many cookbooks during this time were published to encourage individuals to conserve and substitute food for the war effort.
Look for recipes published in newspapers from 1918. Newspapers were an important resource and recipes would often be cut out and pasted in scrapbooks or on cards for later use.
Utilize some of your favorite modern recipes but modify them based on outlined food restrictions. For instance, cook with flours other than wheat, restrict meats like beef or pork, replace eggs with faux substitutes, and stick to alternative fats. The recipes may not have been used during the time period, but you’ll get an idea of how foods tasted during World War I.
If you don’t feel like cooking or baking, you can always bring local fruits or vegetables from your own garden or purchased at the farmer’s market.
At the end of the day, experimenting with what people ate during World War I provided us with a greater understanding of the gastronomical difficulties of the time. Eating these restrictive foods and sharing stories also gave us a greater appreciation for the diversity of food available today. Although these may not be recipes we throw into our regular culinary rotation, it’s always fun to experiment and take risks in the kitchen.