Sept. 16, 2011 – Special Collections at Virginia Tech is home to a growing collection of books, publications, pamphlets, and manuscript materials relating to culinary history. Additional information on the Culinary History Collectiom, as well as the two subsets of this collection, the Peacock Harper Culinary Collection and the Ann Hertzler Children’s Literature and Nutrition Archive, is available thorough the Special Collections website. Other materials in the Culinary History Collection are available through the circulating collection at Newman Library. All books and manuscripts can be found in the library catalog, Addison.

In order to provide an online peek into this exciting group of materials, including handwritten manuscript receipt (recipe) books, early 20th century Jell-O pamphlets, local and community cookbooks from Virginia, and historic American recipe books, we are launching a new blog, What's Cookin' @ Special Collections. Once a week, we will feature an item that, for one reason or another, catches our attention. It may be colorful illustrations, especially rare content, a favorite standard, or questionably edible recipes, but hopefully, each item will offer a little entertainment and a little history. And keep your eyes open for quotes, links, new acquisitions, and events that are just begging to be shared.