When I was at Zingerman's Roadhouse during their fabulous Harvest Dinner, I ran into the delightful Jan Longone, curator of American Culinary History at the Clements Library. She told me about her latest exhibition at the Clements Library called "The Old Girl Network: Charity Cookbooks and the Empowerment of Women."
Cookbooks were one of the early means women used to communicate and advocate for important women's issues, such as suffrage and education. So check out this exhibit of cookbooks, cartoons, and ads to see "the politics just under every woman’s nose (and, often, behind many men’s backs)."
Jan will be giving a lecture on Sunday, September 21 from 3:00 - 5:00 (and she's a good speaker). The exhibition will be opened for pre-lecture viewing at 2:30 on the 21st. It's open now, M-F from 1pm - 4:45pm and runs through October 3, 2008.
William L. Clements Library
909 S. University Ave
Ann Arbor, MI
734-764-2347
Thank you for posting this. I saw the announcement in my Slow Food email and put it on my calendar. I think I'll post it to the Ladies' Food Blogger group and see if anyone else wants to go....
Posted by: TeacherPatti | August 29, 2008 at 02:50 PM
I would LOVE to peruse the Clements collection sometime. I am a bit confused about how to go about seeing the collection, or even searching it's contents. Anything that combines food with feminism is my cup of tea!
- K
Posted by: Kate Boyd | November 24, 2008 at 01:10 PM
Interesting article
ToddDiroberto
Posted by: Todd | July 30, 2009 at 07:05 PM
Hello, Really liked your post. Infact the preface to most of the oldest cookbooks on bengali food can be read as empowering as well as steeped in patriarchal ideas of nationhood as it tries to educate women to be postcolonial subjects. Thanks for posting this.
Posted by: Itiriti | September 03, 2011 at 03:48 PM