Manuscript Location

Dartmouth College, Rauner Library

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Massachusetts ➔ Northampton

Date of Composition

1860s

Description

This recipe book was compiled in the Hunt family during the lifetime of Seth Hunt (1814-1893), an outspoken abolitionist whose house at 115 Bridge Street in Northampton, Massachusetts, served as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Hunt was an active member of the Free Congregational Society of Florence, a radical religious group in the vicinity of Northampton. He wrote extensively for local newspapers on a variety of progressive subjects including abolition, temperance, vegetarianism, and vaccination. Among his notable correspondents were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, and William Lloyd Garrison. A key developer of the Connecticut River Railroad, Seth Hunt served as the corporation's treasurer.