Confronting Culture

The everyday voice and lived experience of Black women can be found in their own papers, publications, and photographs. These objects reflect the struggles and successes of Black women as they strove to participate in American culture and the marketplace on their own terms. As a result, they illustrate Black women's contributions to their households, communities, and to society as a whole.

Please note that this exhibition contains content associated with difficult histories and historical trauma.

A Book of Recipes for the Cooking School

Carrie Alberta Lyford, 1921

Click the image to view a digitized version of this book.

Click the image to view a digitized version of this book.

This cooking textbook was intended as a complete primer for the “young cook.” Carrie Lyford, the book’s author, taught and inspired self-confidence and self-help in the kitchen and community. Lyford was the director of the Home Economics School at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia and a former specialist in Home Economics for the United States Bureau of Education. Writing for Black students at the Hampton Institute, she followed the latest scientific approaches to cooking and included instructions for other tasks, like setting the table and serving courses. The goal of this cookbook was not to train cooks to serve in white households, but to reframe Black women’s cooking as a respectable skill for self-sufficiency.

A Date with a Dish: A Cook Book of American Negro Recipes

Freda de Knight, 1948

Freda de Knight, an accomplished cook, culinary arts teacher, and cooking editor, authored this bestselling cookbook A Date with a Dish, later renamed The Ebony Cookbook. In the preface, de Knight stated, “There has long been a need for a non-regional cookbook that would contain recipes...from and by Negroes all over America.” Proposing that her book filled that gap, de Knight advocated for recognition of the legacy and professionalization of Black cooking across the nation. These are just a few examples of the personal stories de Knight incorporated alongside recipes in her cookbook.

In this chapter of my book I have included some recipes of just a few of the many fine Negro cooks, chefs, caterers, candy-makers, bakers, and housewives all over the country...who with and without education in the culinary arts, have accomplished so much."
Freda de Knight, Chapter 5, "Collector's Corner"

Book jacket cover that reads "A Date with a Dish: A Cook Book of American Negro Recipes, Freda de Knight."

Photograph of a trade catalog in the shape of a dark-skinned woman wearing a kerchief over her head wearing a large white apron over a print dress holding a spoon and a can of "Snowdrift" shortening.

Photograph of back of a trade catalog in the shape of a woman with dark skin wearing a kerchief over her head and a large white apron.

Snowdrift: Pure, Rich, Creamy

Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Company Trade Catalog, ca. 1920s

De Knight and Lyford wrote their cookbooks to combat and override problematic stereotypes surrounding Black cooks and cooking that still exist today. Black cooks, often women, in both the antebellum and post–Civil War South introduced many foods we think of as “Southern” or “American,” but their role in shaping a national cuisine has largely been ignored. The Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Company no doubt used the “Mammy” image on this trade catalog to lend an “authentic” Southern air to Snowdrift, a solid shortening useful for baking and frying. Only recently have some brands, such as Aunt Jemima, removed stereotypical imagery from their packaging and marketing.

La Cuisine Creole (“Creole Cookery”)

Lafcadio Hearn, 1885

While the identity of the woman on the cover of La Cuisine Creole is currently unknown, culinary historians suspect that she may be one of the “leading chefs and noted creole housewives” documented by international writer and cultural observer Lafcadio Hearn in preparing this book. Widely considered to be the first publication documenting creole cooking for a national audience, Hearn wrote it after spending time in New Orleans to research the foods and recipes. Many of these dishes were certainly delicacies created by talented Black cooks.

What is your favorite type of food? Do you know where it was first made?

A red book with gold lettering across the top of the front cover and a black and yellow image in the center. The gold lettering reads: “La Cuisine Creole.” The black and yellow image also says “La Cuisine Creole” across the top. There is a woman dressed as a cook in the center wearing a headwrap and an apron,. She has dark skin and is holding a pot, using a whisk to stir the contents. To the left, there are the words “A Collection of Culinary Recipes.” To the right, there is a black stove with a steaming kettle on top. Under the stove, there is a black cat, looking up at the woman. Behind the woman there is a set of windows showing a view of trees. At the bottom of the black and yellow image, it reads: “F.F. Hansell & Bro., Ltd. Publishers, New Orleans.”

Click the image to view a digitized version of this book.

A black and white photograph of two people, a horse, and a dog. In the foreground, there is a dark-skinned man wearing a black hat and riding a black horse. He is holding the leash of a dog, who is standing to the right of the horse. The horse is pulling a cart, where a woman is riding on a pile of Spanish moss. The woman has dark skin and is wearing a white dress and head covering. Both people are looking directly at the camera. The figures are surrounded by trees, which cover the whole background of the photograph. The bottom of the image reads: “Gathering air moss in the woods near Gainesville, Florida. Negative by G.A. Cooke, Summer 1886.

Gathering Air Moss

Gainesville, Florida; Summer, 1886

The figures in this photograph are unknown, but they are participating in a common Floridian scene of the 1800s. Spanish moss, a type of air plant, grew plentifully in Florida and was used as a stuffing material. Collecting and selling it created economic opportunities for various communities, including Black entreprenuers. While this photograph possibly exposes inequality, with the woman positioned behind her male counterpart, it also offers a rare, unstaged image of a Black woman at work, in contrast with the staged and caricatured images of Black female cooks.

Papers Related to Debts

Phebe Mingo, 1731-1743

In 1741, Phebe Mingo was summoned by the courts to pay her debt or face imprisonment. Living free and unmarried in Massachusetts Bay Colony, Mingo’s experience was different from most Black and Indigenous women in the American colonies. These documents reveal her involvement in the court system and buying power in the marketplace, recording her purchase of items including ribbon and “fine chintz.” Though little else is known about Mingo, her purchases suggest her access to quality material goods, likely for personal consumption. While scholars increasingly study the roles of Black residents in colonial New England, there is much more to learn about women like Phebe Mingo.

Image of official court document with printed and handwritten text and red seal, dating to the 1700s

Black and white photograph of a finely furnished dining room with carpet, chandelier, and a large table at center.

Image of Charleston Room at Winterthur, 20th century, not currently on display. Read more about the Charleston Room at Winterthur. http://museumblog.winterthur.org/2017/10/17/the-long-journey-of-the-charleston-dining-room/

Color photograph of a finely furnished dining room with a large set table at center.

Image of Charleston Room at Winterthur, 20th century, not currently on display. Read more about the Charleston Room at Winterthur. http://museumblog.winterthur.org/2017/10/17/the-long-journey-of-the-charleston-dining-room/

Charleston Room Architecture

1772-74

During the 1820s, '30s and '40s, Abigail and Jehu Jones, a free Black couple, hosted visitors in the fashionable hotel they owned in Charleston, South Carolina. All the while, they were living in a city where Black residents were arrested if found breaking curfew after nine o’clock at night. The hotel was mainly run by Jehu and enslaved workers, but it was Abigail, a pastry cook, who won the establishment recognition among its elite visitors from all over America and Europe. Abigail later moved to New York and continued her work as a cook. Architecture from this hotel, once viewed, touched, and perhaps cared for by Abigail, is now located in the Charleston Room at Winterthur.

The 18th-century paneling, cornices, fireplace and mantle, and windows seen in the interior views of Winterthur (left) come from this hotel (above) that stood in Charleston near the intersection of Broad and Meeting Streets.

Craig Family Papers, ca. 1880-1935 Lavinia Pierce Craig Casper

These selections from the Craig family papers are a window into the everyday life of Lavinia Pierce Craig Casper, a New Jersey woman identified on census records as “mulatto.” Born in 1859, Casper married twice and had thirteen children. After the death of her first husband in 1905, Casper worked outside the home. She carried on the affairs of her large family and often signed documents in her own name.

The Craig papers at Winterthur include photographs of family and friends, an NAACP card belonging to one of Lavinia Casper’s sons, and accounts for buying clothes and household goods.

Where do you keep your most treasured papers and pictures at home? What would someone 100 years from now learn about you by looking at them?

Image of a small tan and black account book.

Watch this video to view a selection of the Craig Papers.

This exhibition is presented by Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. To learn more, visit www.winterthur.org.