"SUCCESS IN COOKING DEPENDS UPON INTELLIGENT HANDLING OF MATERIALS AND CONTROL OF THE COOKING MEDIUM"

LYFORD, Carrie Alberta. A Book of Recipes for the Cooking School. Hampton, Virginia: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, (1921). Octavo, original mustard brown cloth. $2250.

First edition of this collection of recipes intended for Home Economics students at the Hampton Institute.

Founded just after the Civil War, with roots traced back to the beginning of the war, Hampton University—then the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute—is one of the oldest historically black universities in the country. This book was written for use in classes at the cooking school at Hampton by one of its teachers, Carrie Alberta Lyford. Lyford later went on to work extensively in government education initiatives among Native Americans. "As director of the Home Economics School at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, and a former specialist in Home Economics for the U.S. Bureau Of Education, Lyford instilled confidence and self-determination in her students in the early 20th century and she left behind several cookbooks and leaflets to prove it. She inspired and influenced young women while advancing the University's mission: '…to train selected Negro youth who should go out and teach and lead their people first by example…to teach respect for labor, to replace stupid drudgery with skilled hands, and in this way to build up an industrial system for the sake not only of self-support and intelligent labor, but also for the sake of character'" (Toni Tipton-Martin). Bitting, 296. Cagle & Stafford 490.

In fine condition.