This notebook was originally used by Elizabeth Swift to record attendance records for School District No. 14, in Richfield Springs, New York, for the years 1859-1862. Swift later used the notebook to record diary entries, miscellaneous writings, accounts, and forty-one culinary recipes. A number of Swift’s cake recipes (mountain, pork, marble, and railroad) debuted in the 1860s and became widely known in the next decade, suggesting that her recipe collection is circa 1865-1875. The recipes include Fried Cakes, Suet Pudding, Cornstarch Pie, and various cakes, by such names as Carolina, Mountain, Dried Apple, Soda or Almond, Jell [jelly] or Sponge, Pork, Marble, Philadelphia, and Railroad.
