Manuscript Location

Place of Origin

Date of Composition

Description

This collection consists of a large notebook (12 x 7 ½ x 1½ inches) and a number of loose sheets tucked within the book.  Altogether, the collection comprises approximately 200 pages of handwritten recipes, recipes clipped from newspapers, and handwritten menus and seating charts.  Although much of the material, including the menus and seating charts, is in the hand of Helen Lincklaen Fairchild (1845-1931), the book was written by several people, including possibly Mrs. Fairchild’s mother, Helen Seymour Lincklaen (1818-1894). Therefore, it seems plausible that the book roughly spans Mrs. Fairchild’s lifetime.

Now operated as a Lorenzo State Historic Site, the estate known as Lorenzo was built by John Lincklaen and his wife, Helen Ledyard Lincklaen, in 1807. Upon the death of Mrs. Lincklaen, in 1847, Lorenzo was inherited by her nephew, Lincklaen Ledyard (1820-1864), who legally reversed his name to Ledyard Lincklaen. Ledyard Lincklaen and his wife, his second cousin Helen Clarissa Seymour, had one daughter, Helen Krumbhaar Lincklaen, who became the third owner of Lorenzo when her mother died in 1894. Helen married Charles S. Fairchild in 1871. A Harvard graduate and an attorney, Charles Fairchild was elected Attorney General of New York in 1875, and served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Grover Cleveland from 1887 to 1889, after which he went into the banking and investment business in New York City. For most of their marriage, the Fairchilds summered at Lorenzo and spent their winters in Albany, Washington, DC, or New York City, depending on Mr. Fairchild’s professional positions.  The couple had no children.