Manuscript Location

Winterthur Library, Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection

Place of Origin

United States ➔ New York ➔ New Lebanon

Date of Composition

ca. 1854-1890

Description

There are two volumes in this collection. Both were compiled by a number of different persons writing over several decades during the mid-nineteenth century. Internal evidence suggests that both manuscripts originated within a Shaker community. The larger of the notebooks contains recipes for wines of various kinds, vinegar, spruce and ginger beers, catsup, jellies, cakes, and other foods. It also contains practical household recipes, including one for dye and another for bleaching palm leaf, which the Shakers wove and used for making hats. The smaller volume opens with a musical score (notes only, in letter notation), a list of state nicknames, and a brief undated journal of a visit to Watervliet and the Harmony Mills (textiles), in Troy, New York, made by Shakers from Mount Lebanon. Recipes, mostly culinary, follow, a few of which are attributed to various persons. At the end of this volume there is a list of brethren for whom jackets and trousers were made in 1854-1855, followed by notes about baking done by the sisters in January 1869 and October 1875. The recipes are indexed in a database available at the library.