Just in time for Thanksgiving, a new cookbook exhibit at SMU’s DeGolyer Library is taking a look at history through a culinary lens. From a 276-page handwritten volume of recipes dating to 1816, to the first cookbook published in Texas, to a selection of ethnic cookbooks, there is a recipe for every taste.
The exhibit, “The Joy of Cooking – Two Centuries of Cookbooks at the DeGolyer Library,” will run through Dec. 22, featuring 206 books from DeGolyer’s 6,000-cookbook collection, acquired during the research library’s decades of collecting items related to Western Americana, transportation, women’s history and business history.
“Cookbooks are much more than compilations of recipes,” says Christina Jensen, curator of the exhibit and head of public services at the library. “They offer a timeline of economic, technology, family and social history.”
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