Adopt-a-Book: Food-Drink
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14
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American EntomologyAdoption Amount: $1,600 Thomas Say (1787-1834) was a self-taught naturalist who has come to be considered the Father of American Entomology. In 1812 he became one of the founding/charter members of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia and actually lived at the Academy and tended its small museum for several years. He also began publishing this book – part 1 came out in 1817 – but his participation in several scientific expeditions delayed its completion until later in the 1820s. In this and other works he described and named over 1400 species of insects (especially beetles). Read More |
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Codex NuttallAdoption Amount: $550 This 1902 facsimile is one of a small number of codices of native pictography from Mexico dating to pre-Hispanic times. The original is a screenfold manuscript comprised of 47 leaves of deer skin now in the British Museum. It uses a kind of picture writing to relate two narratives. One side of the screenfold tells the history of important Mixtec centers. The other side, starting at the opposite end, records the genealogy, marriages, and military and political accomplishments of the Mixtec ruler, Eight Deer. Also included is one of the earliest portrayals of the sacred drink xocotatl... Read More |
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Compliments of Standard Rice Company, Inc., Millers of Rice Since 1902Adoption Amount: $350 This promotional recipe booklet is a striking adverstisment for White House Cereals. Most likely published in the late 1930's, the front cover is fashioned as a 3-D commercial food carton while the back cover displays their full product line. Bright yellow and die-cut, this booklet was intended as an eye-catching calling card. Die-cutting dates back to the Victorian era when industrial machines could mass-produce and print the same attractive shapes over and over again, like the celebrated Victorian-era Valentines. The recipes within "contributed by both domestice science experts and... Read More |
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English Table GlassAdoption Amount: $500 Percy Bate was born in Manchester in 1868. In addition to English Table Glass, he authored several books on portraiture and other forms of art. He was Secretary of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and later Director of Aberdeen Municipal Art Gallery and Museum. In English Table Glass, he uses photographs and descriptions to highlight many examples from spirit glasses to candlesticks. Bate covers table glass from the 16th through the 18th century, but some of his advice—such as how to identify fakes—applies to researchers and collectors today. This volume can help... Read More |
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The Grapes of New YorkAdoption Amount: $550 U. P. Hedrick was a horticulturist at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York in 1905 when he began writing the first of many monographs of fruit cultivars that could be grown in New York State. The Grapes of New York is the first of his many works. The Smithsonian Libraries' Botany and Horticulture Library holds all of his works in print. The works were classic references on the fruit cultivars of the period. These volumes are much sought after by pomologists and fruit enthusiasts for their detailed descriptions and beautiful artwork. Read More |
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How to Mix DrinksAdoption Amount: $3,000 Collecting and standardizing what had been until then a hodge-podge of oral traditions and regional customs, this was the first recipe book for mixed drinks published in the United States. Jeremiah Thomas (1830-1885) was a bartender who owned various saloons in New York City and worked in others in California (during the Gold Rush), St. Louis, Chicago, Charleston, and New Orleans. In this first edition of his book he established the recipes for popular cocktails of the day, including fizzes, flips, sours, punches, and many others; later editions provided the first written recipes for the... Read More |
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The Imperial Russian Dinner ServiceAdoption Amount: $950 From a limited edition of 300 copies (1909), this substantial volume tells the story of the 952-piece dinner service created by legendary potter Josiah Wedgwood for Empress Catherine II of Russia. Known as the "The Frog Service," it was the most ambitious commission Wedgwood had undertaken, and required more than 1,200 illustrations of English manor houses.
The text is interspersed with monochrome plates showing individual pieces, remarkable not only for their craftsmanship and notoriety but also for their detailed depictions of many 18th century English buildings and scenes now absent from... Read More |
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Josiah Wedgwood and His PotteryAdoption Amount: $1,050 This volume includes biographical information on Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) as well as a history of the Wedgwood Pottery and its wares. Wedgwood started producing pottery in about 1759 and is credited with the industrialization of pottery manufacturing. His unique glazes, including the classic jasper, distinguished his pottery from others of the period. Wedgwood pottery became popular not only in England but throughout Europe and America. The author of this volume worked as a chemist at Wedgwood for five years and his passion for the company and its pottery comes through in his writing.... Read More |
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Lienzo de TlaxcalaAdoption Amount: $1,300 This 1939 reproduction of a Tlaxcala codex was originally developed in the 16th century. The Lienzo de Tlaxcala uses detailed drawings to depict the time of contact and conflict between Hernando Cortez and various people groups in and around the Tlaxcala region of Mexico. The Lienzo de Tlaxcala is comprised of images with accompanying headings in Nahuatl and captions in Spanish. This quarto-sized reproduction includes a forward explaining the rich history of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, from the missing 16th century original to the various iterations throughout Mexican... Read More |
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Neu Vollkommenes Krauter-BuchAdoption Amount: $1,500 Pietro Mattioli (1501-1577), a physician and botanist, first published his commentaries on the classic work on medical botany from antiquity – Dioscorides’ De materia medica – in 1544 in Italian. He identified the plants that the ancient Greek had discussed as being medically useful and added dozens of new ones known from other parts of Europe. Mattioli’s work was quickly translated into numerous European languages and re-published for more than a century as the standard text on the subject. This edition – in German, dated 1678 – is evidence of the work’s enduring value. This... Read More |
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Noted Porcelains of Successive DynastiesAdoption Amount: $9,000 This color illustrated porcelain catalogue of Chinese culinary objects was compiled by the famous Ming art collector Xiang Yuanbian (1525-1590). He was the first Chinese scholar to compile a catalogue of porcelains with colored illustrations. The manuscript was not published during Xiang’s lifetime. It was eventually acquired by the British scholar S.W. Bushell (1844-1908) who took it to London where it was lost in a fire. Fortunately copies of it had previously been made in China. John C. Ferguson (1866-1945) studied one of them, translated it into English and annotated the text. This... Read More |
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Porcelaines, Faiences & CristauxAdoption Amount: $750 A rare trade catalogue from the Paris firm of Le Grand Dépot, a manufacturer of porcelains, faience ceramics, and glassware, contains images and sale information for a variety of tablewares in many popular patterns. The catalogue, complete with more than 100 pages of illustrated designs, is a good resource for contemporary decorative patterns for glass and plates catering to the Victorian tastes of the time. This catalog is a fine example of a high-end marketing tool that both retailers and manufacturers employed for local and international sales. Read More |
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Religion in the KitchenAdoption Amount: $250 This book is a truly original and innovative look into the often unknown and complex “micropractices” of preparing sacred foods that are important religious rituals in their own right. With her in-depth anthropological study of the traditions of Lucumi (popularly known as Santeria), Elizabeth Pérez uncovers behind-the-scenes secrets of the preparation that goes on in kitchens around the world, usually at the hands of women and gay men, to ensure that food is prepared according to tradition and to truly “please the gods.” Read More |
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Trophic Relationships in the Marine EnvironmentAdoption Amount: $250 All living things need energy to survive and thrive. Ultimately, all food energy starts with the sun (or, rarely, deep sea hydrothermal vents). Plants make their own food, through photosynthesis, from the energy of the sun. Things eat plants, and other things eat the things that eat the plants. And so on. Biologists call these relationships “Food Chains.” And when they are examining the more complex relationships that generally exist around who eats what, “Food Webs.” And since biologists, like most professionals, have their own lingo, there is an important–if obscure to outsiders–concept... Read More |
