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Birmingham Brass Catalogue
Birmingham, Englad was known as the first manufacturing town in the world and played a central role in the manufacturing and production of trade catalogs. Trade catalogs emerged as a new and effective way to market industrial design to the masses while competing with rival firms. This brass trade catalog used detailed engravings to sell a diverse group of mass-produced metal products.
Gardening for Profit
The first edition of Peter Henderson’s Gardening for Profit was published in 1867, two years after the Civil War ended, and sold 100,000 copies. It’s considered the first book written on market gardening in the United States. Market gardening is defined as small scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers, from less than an acre to a few acres. In today's world, you may meet a market gardener at your local farmer's market.
If You Want to Build a House
A book that accompanied the 1946 exhibit "If You Want To Build A House" exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art. The book highlights mid-century modern architects such as Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, and Richard Neutra as well as Prairie School architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The book describes the concepts of modern architecture from the prospective of a potential home builder.
Meissner Tapeten
A 1930 modern wallpaper sample book, highlighting Bauhaus and Art Deco style patterns. These designs have bold, intense colors, and very subtle patterns, some with gold and silver elevations or highlights.
On the Use of the Improved Papier Mache
The Cooper Hewitt Library has a wonderful collection of 19th century ornament pattern books, patterns that continue to inspire artists and designers today. The Library also collects books about the use of materials and techniques.
The Skillful Housewife's Book
This book was designed to guide and educate women about how to run what was then her main domain: the home. Discussing politeness and temper, bathing and exercise, simple house cures for ailments, how to preserve eggs and how to make “Splendid Johnny Cake,” this elegant small volume gives advice about everything and anything that exists and happens around a fashionable house. There are instructions even about how to remove grease from books!
The American Woman's Home
This manual on homemaking, an important handbook for a 19th century homemaker, was co-written by the Beecher sisters (as in Harriet Beecher Stowe of Uncle Tom's Cabin fame). By creating this manual, the authors were hoping to provide professional level instruction to women running a servant free household. The book educates on a wide array of areas that women encountered every day at home, including how to prepare and serve healthful foods, how to properly ventilate the kitchen, how to tastefully decorate the home, and how to properly play hostess to a variety of guests.
The Theory and Practice of Brewing
The owner of a brewery and several public houses in Hampstead, then a suburb of London, author Michael Combrune wrote this book as an expanded version of an earlier work, incorporating his experiments on malts and fermentation, among other aspects of the brewing and wine-making trades. Scientifically minded, he pioneered the thermometer as a crucial diagnostic tool for these processes. The Libraries' copy was acquired in a major purchase of trade literature from the Franklin Institute in 1986.
The Godey's Lady's Book Receipts and Household Hints
The Godey’s Lady’s Book was a widely read journal that pioneered the field of women’s magazines. When first published in 1830, it included mainly images of the current fashions, but later it expanded to include fiction, essays, and recipes. In 1870, the magazine published its first cookbook, The Godey’s Lady’s Book Receipts and Household Hints. The book is a compilation of featured recipes along with a chapter of household and cooking advice. The chapter ends on a playful note with a poem —each couplet is a cooking tip or proverb.
Pressed Glass Salt Dishes of the Lacy Period, 1825-1850
Any glass collector worth their salt should consider adopting this charming book on pressed glass salt dishes. “Lacy glass” is the term given to the first glass products pressed in America and on the European Continent, from about 1825-1850. This volume contains actual-size drawings of each salt dish described. Glass is often difficult to photograph accurately due to the refraction of light by facets on the pieces. But even producing these drawings required the making of molds and castings of each and every lacy salt dish to capture the intricate details.
Coming Together
This book discusses numerous traditions of African American families, including Kwanzaa, Christmas, naming ceremonies, and family reunions. The book also shares traditional recipes and tips for how the reader can document their own family events. By taking a deeper look into these unique and timeless celebrations, Cole and Pinderhughes allow their curious readers a peek into how important celebrations like these are in African American families, and the essential role they play in keeping families “dynamic, powerful, and close-knit.”
Religion in the Kitchen
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.
Wallpapers by Edward Bawden Printed at the Curwen Press
For a few years after 1926, the Curwen Press produced a series of wallpapers. They were designed principally by Edward Bawden, whose linocuts were transferred to lithographic plates for printing. Unlike most modern wallpapers, printed on long rolls of paper, these were printed in the traditional manner as sheets. Very This limited edition contains some of the surviving wallpaper design sheets, none of which have been reprinted in modern times.
Architectural Designs for Model Country Residences
A book published to sell his designs to prospective clients and illustrated with twenty lithographs in full color, Architectural Designs for Model Country Residences is one of the handsomest American books of architecture published in the 19th century. It includes designs for villas, cottages, and mansions in the Italian and Gothic styles, along with Greek Revival. John Riddell advocated the use of cast ironwork on porches (for columns) and other decoration, and often employed towers and belvederes in his Italian Villa and Italianate plans.
Family Education and Government
North American Indian languages have been a strong research interest at the Smithsonian Institution virtually since its founding. SI Libraries holds about 20 published texts in Choctaw – primarily grammars, glossaries, and translations of the Bible. This work is particularly interesting in that it seems to be a translation of an early-19th century English pamphlet on domestic and social life, albeit within a strong religious context.
