Manuscript Location

University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Kislak Center for Special Collections - Manuscripts

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Pennsylvania

Date of Composition

accounts begin 1787, recipes mostly 1828-1842

Description

This book was begun by Daniel Clymer, likely Daniel Cunyngham Clymer (1748-1810), a colonel in the Revolutionary War and later a lawyer in Berks County, Pennsylvania. It is primarily an account book kept by Daniel Clymer and Clymer family descendants between 1787 and around 1860. Many of the accounts are of wages paid to workers for spinning wool and flax and for butchering and other farm labor. There are also accounts for farm commodities including grain, butter, and eggs.

However, the book also includes about two dozen culinary recipes, primarily for sweets such as yeast-raised cakes, sponge cakes, ginger cakes, ice cream, and lemon cream, but also for for beer, quince cordial, and curing shad and herring.  The culinary recipes are in a number of different hands, including that of M. Clymer. They contain dates from 1828 to 1844. There are also medical recipes, veterinary recipes, and notes about family members written by M. Clymer around 1841.