Foodways: Home

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Foodways as "the eating habits and culinary practices of a people, region, or historical period."  This subject guide lists materials held in the Archives and Special Collections which contain information related to cooking and eating food as well as related cultural, social, and economic practices.

Organization and Content of the Foodways Subject Guide

• Cookbooks Before 1800 contains a short list of French, English, and American cookbooks dating from 1676 to 1796.
• 19th Century Cookbooks holds a very brief list of cookbooks with recipes from the American South dating from 1800 to 1899.
• 20th Century Cookbooks reflects the collecting focus of the Archives and Special Collections in that the cookbooks (dating from 1900 to 1999) are primarily related to Mississippi or the American South.  However, this page does include publications from other regions in the United States as well as a significant number of recipe booklets produced by businesses to promote their food products or kitchen equipment to consumers.
• 21st Century Cookbooks consists of cookbooks dating from 2000 to the present related primarily to Mississippi and the American South, but it does include publications from other regions.
• Other Primary Source Publications lists cataloged material with content related to food such as poetry & fiction, memoirs & autobiographies, published reports & studies, speeches, and essays.
• Blues & Other Music contains lists of recordings, musical scores & sheet music, collections, videos, and books about music which contain food-related references and content.
• Manuscript Collections describes manuscript collections which possess material related to food in formats that include correspondence, diaries, recipes, cookbooks, clippings, ephemera, and other resources.
• Secondary Source Publications provides a list of biographies, histories and other scholarly productions related to food.

Some Caveats (what is not included in the subject guide):

• Material related to alcohol and liquor do not appear on the lists as the number of such items in the archives is of sufficient size to warrant its own subject guide (forthcoming).
• Material related to the growth and cultivation of food crops are listed in the Agriculture & Forestry Subject Guide.
• Eating is a necessity of life and frequently commented upon in letters or diaries or recorded in business transactions with stores and vendors throughout the archives' holdings, but if a collection finding aid does not specifically include references to that content, then potentially useful material in the Archives & Special Collections may not appear on this guide (the same is true of publications in the catalog record).  Researchers wishing to expand their search beyond collections listed here for additional information about food during a specific time period or at a specific location in Mississippi are encouraged to seek the assistance of archivists to identify collections that contain correspondence, journals, or business records which might provide useful food content.

Photograph of Paris Grocery in Paris, Mississippi circa 1962.  Martin J. Dain Collection.