'Not by Bread Alone' library exhibit explores America's culinary history

Cornell University Library's summer exhibition explores the influences and inventions that have shaped American food habits over the past 200 years. "Not by Bread Alone: America's Culinary Heritage" opens in the Carl A. Kroch Library today, June 6, with a reception from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Food and eating habits can be a compelling tool for examining culture. But which comes first, the culture or the cuisine? How does one influence the other, and what are the ingredients that blend together to create the food ways and preferences of a particular group of people? In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, Rupert Spies, senior lecturer in the School of Hotel Administration, will present a lecture titled "To Each His Own Taste: How Culture Influences Cuisine," at 4:30 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall.

Drawn from the library's rare book and manuscript collections, "Not by Bread Alone" presents rare cookbooks and guidebooks, photographs, menus and other early documents that trace the history of gastronomy in America. The exhibition includes sections on early cookbooks, temperance and prohibition, food processing and manufacture, nutrition and food science, diet and health reform, and kitchen technology. A digital version of the exhibition also is available online at rmc.library.cornell.edu/food.

"American food culture has evolved through a rich interplay of foreign adaptation and home-grown invention," said Katherine Reagan, the library's curator of rare books and organizer of the exhibition. Early colonists encountered a continent already peopled with native food cultures and traditions, but they brought their European tastes and food conventions with them. Toward the end of the 18th century, American food began to distinguish itself from its European and British origins as the young nation began to develop its own cultural, political and domestic habits and institutions. The earliest American cookbooks incorporated native ingredients, such as corn, squash and cranberries, into traditional European recipes.

By the end of the 19th century, America's expanding economy and growing upper class led to self-indulgence and a desire for elegance with respect to food. "Technological invention and domestic reform had an enormous impact on the evolution of the American kitchen," Reagan said. Fewer households could rely on servants, and housewives required a more efficient kitchen in which to work. In the early 1900s, labor-saving kitchen devices created more leisure time, allowing for a greater enjoyment of food as entertainment. By the 1950s, revolutions in agriculture and food technology transformed eating into big business, separating most Americans from food production entirely.

"Not by Bread Alone" highlights Cornell Library's growing collection of historical rare books and manuscripts devoted to food history -- works that uncover some of America's forgotten domestic practices, as well as the cooking and eating experiences of earlier generations. The exhibition will be on view in the Kroch Library until Oct. 4. Gallery hours during the summer are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.