Tweet 1
Hello #foodstudies20 Conference! I’m excited to be presenting Exploring Cookbooks through Text Analysis and Data Visualizations. #gastronomyatbu #cookbookhistory #foodstudies #foodhistory #datavisualization
Tweet 2
Follow along to see how an Archivist/Student @GastronomyatBU explores explores historic cookbooks in in 32 tweets. My evolving workflow can be found at #foodstudies20 https://www.laurakitchings.com/foodstudies20
Tweet 3
I based my initial workflow on information provided by #thedatasittersclub text analysis project focusing on the Baby-Sitters Club books and Barbara Ketcham Wheaton’s The Sifter recipe database project #foodstudies20
Tweet 4
My current workflow includes the use of #antconc to find patterns in the text, Excel to catalog the terms, and #tableaupublic to create data visualizations. I spent significant time creating a controlled vocab. to describe the individual terms #foodstudies20
Tweet 5
I have cataloged about a third of the words in each Cook Book in the Excel workbook. #foodstudies20 https://public.tableau.com/views/CurrentCookBookProgress/CurrentCookBookProgress?:language=en&:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Tweet 6
I made the choice to combine singular and plural food words such as “Apple” and “Apples” to count as one term. I am using #antconc’s word cluster tool to determine when “corn’ is used as a vegetable and when it is part of the term “corn meal”. #foodstudies20
Tweet 7
I started my work looking at two Cook Books authored by prominent Domestic Scientist Maria Parloa (1843–1909) that bookend her working life, The Appledore Cookbook (1872) and the 1908 edition of Miss Parloa's New Cook Book And Marketing Guide #foodstudies20
Tweet 8
Maria Parloa began her career as a resort cook in New England and, after moving briefly to Florida, began lecturing and teaching on cooking and household management founding a cooking school in Boston. #foodstudies20
Tweet 9
She wrote for the Ladies Home Journal and her will provided funds for the founding of the The Bethel Free Public Library in Connecticut.#foodstudies20
Tweet 10
Maria Parloa also licensed her name and work for use in promotional materials for brands including The Liebig Extract of Meat Company, and the chocolate company Walter Baker & Company. #foodstudies20 https://spark.adobe.com/post/ZSvz9veg0d3Hs/
Tweet 11
Her later work shows the rising influence of corporations and government in home management #foodstudies20 https://public.tableau.com/views/Corp_15954531664020/CorporationsandGovernmentinMariaParloasCookBooks?:language=en&:display_count=y&publish=yes&:origin=viz_share_link
Tweet 12
I then started comparing Maria Parloa’s works to the Hawaiian Cook Book created by the Ladies Society of the Central Union Church in Honolulu. Pre-COVID-19 I visited copies of this cookbook at the @AAS and #SchlesingerLibrary #foodstudies20
Tweet 13
The Central Union Church’s Hawaiian Cook Book’s fourth edition was published in 1896, by the the Hawaiian Gazette. This newspaper supported American business interests in Hawaii. This edition of the Cook Book was published two years before the annexation of Hawaii. #foodstudies20
Tweet 14
A discussion about the role of newspapers in both the colonialism of Hawaii and Native Hawaiian resistance can be found in the works of Helen Geracimos Chapin and Noenoe K. Silva. #foodstudies20
Tweet 15
In the Introduction to the Hawaiian Cook Book the organizing committee identifies the cookbook contributors as the “American housewives of Honolulu.” #foodstudies20
Tweet 16
In her 1898 Autobiography, the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom Liliʻuokalani describes the Central Union Church as, “attended by the missionary families, and indeed most of the foreign residents of American birth or sympathies.”#foodstudies20
Tweet 17
In the Hawaiian Cook Book, the contributors are mostly identified as Mrs. [Husband’s Initials] [Husband’s Last Name]. #foodstudies20
Tweet 18
Using #antconc’s concordance and text comparison tools, I found may of these husbands’s identified in the Autobiography as actors in the overthrowing of the Hawaiian government. #foodstudies20
Tweet 19
Comparing the produce used and food preparations used in Maria Parloa’s works and the Hawaii Cookbook shows that the American Housewives of Honolulu largely used the same foods and preparations as middle-class white women on the mainland. #foodstudies20
Tweet 20
These similarities include named brands such as “Cox” gelatin. #foodstudies20 https://public.tableau.com/views/FoodPreparationsandProduceComparisons/AFASFoodPrep?:language=en&:display_count=y&publish=yes&:origin=viz_share_link
Tweet 21
Textual analysis does show some usage of native produce and produce purchased from stores supporting the plantation laborers. However, these products are used to create food preparations similar to those found in Maria Parloa’s works #foodstudies20
Tweet 22
Examining the Hawaiian Cook Book word list in #antconc I found a number of fish described using their Native Hawaiian names. #foodstudies20
Tweet 23
Returning to the Cook Book’s Digital Surrogate I found that these words were largely used in a single chapter titled “A Hawaiian Feast” credited to “Mrs. Brickwood and Daughters”. #foodstudies20
Tweet 24
Additional research identifies Mrs. Brickwood as Louisa Luika Nahili “Chu Chu” Gilman Brickwood (1828-1909). The “Chu Chu” references her adoptive Cherokee father, not her first husband, a Chinese merchant in Honolulu. Most of the available sources that mention her seem to focus on her connection to the men in her life #foodstudies20
Tweet 25
While Mrs. Brickwood’s Native Hawaiian ancestry was clearly known to the cookbook committee, identifying her only by her second husband’s name obscures her other identities to later readers. I plan to research “Mrs. Brickwood” and the “Daughters” further #foodstudies20
Tweet 26
It is notable that the cookbook committee used the family’s known Native Hawaiian identity to add “authenticity” to the menu identified as “Hawaiian” and raises questions of cultural appropriation #foodstudies20
Tweet 27
These questions are raised in other recipes. A lime pickle recipe is identified as an “Indian Receipt” and there is a section of “Tahitian Recipes.” It seems that these recipes are referencing the contributor’s travel to these places, often other colonized locations.
Tweet 28
I was surprised when I found the usage of Native Hawaiian terms for fish was significantly higher in the 1920 edition of the Hawaiian Cook Book #foodstudies20 https://public.tableau.com/views/AnimalUsage/AnimalsUsagebyFrequency?:language=en&:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link
Tweet 29
Examining the digital copies of the Central Union Church’s cookbooks, I found that the additional fish were in a section on ways to eat more local fish, produced in 1918 by The Women’s Committee of the Territorial Food Commission and Federal Food Administration. #foodstudies20
Tweet 30
Since the (now) Womens’ Society of the Central Union Church was involved in War efforts, it is likely that this agency was created to reduce non-fish meat usage and demonstrate that the fish were local, not requiring resources to be transported to the Islands. #foodstudies20
Tweet 31
Including the fish in this section militarized the fish names, which fits the increased militarization of the Islands during World War I. The inclusion of the section in the cookbook seems performative, the Society looking to prove their assistance during the War. #foodstudies20
Tweet 32
Incorporating textual analysis and data visualizations into my work made me consider each word of the texts. It also provided new ways to study the cookbooks and raises more questions about the texts. Thank your for reading along! #foodstudies20