What’s Cooking?

After indulging over the holidays, it seems that each January we pledge to exercise more and eat healthier.  Cookbooks are the go-to resource for the “eating-better” part of that new commitment.  But did you ever wonder about where these marvels of gastric chemistry originated?

Prior to the 1750s, cookbooks were written by chefs for chefs.  Many families had their own “note [cook] books”, that included recipes not only for food, but also for medicinals (think headache cures) and cleaners (such as shoe polish). The first cookbook for housewives was published in England in 1757.  It consisted of artistic recipes designed to help homemakers create fancy meals.

America’s first known cookbook, American Cookery, was written in 1796 by Amelia Simmons.  Many of the book’s recipes called for distinctly American ingredients such as pumpkin and corn.

In 1845 Eliza Acton wrote Modern Cookery for Private Families, and was the first cookbook to list ingredient quantities and cooking times.  In addition to recipes, Acton’s book included information for women about morals and etiquette.

Fannie Merritt Farmer is credited with creating the modern cookbook.  Farmer attended and later taught at the Boston Cooking School.  In 1896 she wrote Boston Cooking School Cook Book.  Using scientific methods, her recipes were the first to give precise measurements and instructions.  She also established the practice, still used today, of writing a recipe by first listing the ingredients and their amounts and then writing out precise instructions for preparing the dish.

So, the next time you use a cookbook, think of its long history and all the trial and error that went into creating the yummy recipes.  Happy Cooking!

Glass Photographs?

We take photos at the drop of a hat. A quick click and we can snap a ton of images or share a selfie with the world in seconds.  But not so long-ago taking a photograph was difficult, required great skill, and each image was precious.

Beginning in the mid-1800s, photographers used glass plates to capture images – collodion wet plate and gelatin dry plate.

Collodion wet plate negatives were in use from about 1851 until the 1880s.  Collodion (a flammable liquid) was spread on a glass support (plate), then placed into a bath of silver nitrate, which turned the collodion into a photosensitive silver iodide.  When plate was exposed to light, it would capture an image. The big problem with this process (from smearing the plate to processing the photo), was that it had to happen before the plate dried; in about 5 – 15 minutes depending on the light.  You can identify these types of negatives by their uneven emulsion coating, thick glass, and rough edges.  Sometimes you can see the photographers thumbprint on the edge because they would be the one to mix and apply the emulsion.

Dry plate (Silver Gelatin) negatives were first available in 1873.  Unlike the wet-plate variety, gelatin dry plates were – yup you guest it – dry!  They were more easily transported and needed less exposure to light.  Photographers and manufacturers could prepare the negatives in advance and develop the images long after exposure. These negatives are identified by having thinner glass and a more evenly coated emulsion.  Dry plate glass negatives were in common use between the 1880s and the late 1920s.

These types of negatives were used in view cameras – large hulky boxes. The great thing about photos made from these negatives is that they often contain a great amount of detail and subtly of tone, due to the skill of the photographer and the nature of the emulsions.  Common negative sizes were 4×5, 5×8 and 8×10, larger sizes were also common.

Click through photographs below to view a gallery of glass plate negatives in the SCHS collections.

Taking the photo:

Once a photographer was satisfied that his subject was sufficiently well lit and positioned*, they would select a plate and follow these steps:

1. Place a dry plate (contained in a plate holder) into a slot in the camera

2. Slide the cover from the plate holder to uncover the dry plate

3. Uncover and then recover the lens. (By 1880, photographic plates were so sensitive that an exposure of less than a second was often enough to capture an image.)

4. Slide the cover on the plate holder back over the dry plate

5. Remove the plate holder containing the exposed plate, which was now ready for processing in a dark room.**

* Many times, photographers used frames or braces to hold a subject steady during the exposure time. Any movement could cause the image to blur.

** These plates could produce multiple prints

Developing the photograph:

1. Moisten the plate in distilled water

2. Place the plate in a glass or developing dish, and cover with developing fluid

3. Wash thoroughly when the image appeared

4. Place in a bath of fixing solution, and then wash and dry the plate. It could be varnished at this point, but this was rare after about 1890.

Printing Process:

Printing Out Paper (POP)

1. Fairly thin paper treated with photosensitive silver chloride crystals in a gelatin glaze. (used for printing photos that were mounted on strong cards).  These prints would usually be toned and fixed.

2. The POP would be placed under the negative in a special frame then exposed to daylight or artificial light until the image developed

3. The print would then be washed in water to remove excess chemicals

4. The print would then be toned using gold and platinum toners (to convert the silver into more stable compounds)

5. Washed again and fixed using standard fixing solution

6. The final step was to have the photograph air dried or, squeegeed on a clean polished glass surface and allowed to dry

Platinum Print (Plat), often used for landscape or architectural photos.  In this method the metal on the paper was platinum, not silver, and iron salts were used for developing.  These prints had a wide range of subtle tones, usually silvery-grey.  The price of platinum skyrocketed in 1907 and production of the paper stopped by 1916.

Carbon orienting was another process, which produced a matt finish in colors ranging from rich sepia tones to cooler shades of blue and grey.  These types of prints were resistant to fading so were most often used for commercial photos.  Other types of prints include Bromide, Bristol, Cabinet, Cameo, Carte de visite, Mezzo, and Vignette

Glass plate negatives are fragile, not only because they are made of glass, but also because the emulsions can easily be scratched or slip from the glass.  These negatives should be housed in an archival quality four-flap envelope, which enables the negative to handled without scratching the surface. The envelope should then be stored in an archival box on their edge (straight up & down) and stored with negatives of similar size.  Because these plates are heavy, the box shouldn’t be filled tight – a spacer can be put between the negatives to hold them upright and reduce the weight of the box.

Glass plate photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century as more convenient and less fragile films were adopted.  However, plates were still being used into the 1970s, most likely because of their great detail and tonal qualities. 

Flexible films were available in the late 1880s for amateur use, but the plastic was of poor quality, tended to curl, and initially was more expensive to produce than glass.  However, quality improved and manufacturing costs came down and amateurs abandoned plates for film. Now as technology changes yet again, we’ve abandoned film for digital images.

Why is the New Year in January?

If you have ever wondered why the New Year starts in the freezing cold of January, you can thank Caesar. That’s right, Julius Caesar, leader of the Roman Empire. Before Caesar took power the length of a year was somewhat subjective. Politicians in Rome might add days, or subtract days to increase terms in the Senate; and it was based around the phases of the moon, but kept falling out of line with the seasons. Enter Caesar, who sought to set the calendar into a more predictable cycle, except he did so starting most of the way through the year, 45 B.C.E. As such, the Julian calendar began on January 1st instead of in March as was tradition.

By the time of the Middle Ages, the holiday had fallen into obscurity. Everyone knew the year started on January 1st, but the celebration of it went unobserved. The reason was because January 1st kept moving. Caesar did not calculate that a year is about 365.24 days long; instead he calculated at 365.25. After about a thousand years of adding a few minutes every year the calendar ended up having 376 days and kept adding. So in 1582 the Gregorian calendar came along and instituted the idea of the leap year to balance things back out. Since then, the first has been consistent, and thus people began to celebrate the New Year with regularity.

Happy New Year for all of us at the SCHS!

Written by Dave Nichols, Curator of Collections

A Short History of Thanksgiving

Early Thanksgivings:

Setting aside time to express gratitude and feasting to celebrate harvests where both practices that predated European and English arrival in North America.  Similar practices are recorded as being part of life for more than one American Indian nation. Feasts of thanks were recorded by both the Spanish and French settlers who came to North America in the 16th century.

Thanksgiving card made by Patricia Donnelly of Cedar Lake Township for her her mother, 1950. SCHS Collections

Thanksgivings were also commonplace among the early British colonial settlers. The first settlement at Jamestown in 1610 routinely held thanksgiving feasts. In fact, it was written into their charter from the London Company that “the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned… in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.” Unlike modern Thanksgiving, these feasts did not take place on a particular day of the year. Instead, they were celebrated whenever a community thought recent events warranted a party.

The event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims in October 1621 after their first harvest in what they called the “new world”. This feast lasted three days. Attendee Edward Winslow described it thusly:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we retired our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days with whom we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty

Thanksgiving card listing beloved family members and friends, 1905. From the SCHS Collections

As feasts of thanksgiving were a relatively common cultural practice at the time, the Pilgrims’ feast with the Wampanoag was not identified as the first Thanksgiving until a booklet titled “Of Plymouth Plantation” was published in 1841. The booklet contained collected writings of the Plymouth colonial settlers. The editor, Alexander Young, pointed out the above passage as the original Thanksgiving in a footnote.

The United States:

Thanksgiving was a part of the national identity of the United States from its onset. During the revolutionary war, the Continental Congress declared one or more days of Thanksgiving each year. Rather then falling on an appointed day each year, these Thanksgivings were declared to honor individuals or events such as a battlefield victory. The proclamations were lengthy and wordy affairs, such as this December example:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these United States to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth Day of December next, for Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise: That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please God through the Merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole: To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, Independence and Peace: That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase: To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth “in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.

After the end of the Revolutionary war, Thanksgivings continued be periodically declared. President John Adams proclaimed Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. Thomas Jefferson was a deist and a skeptic of the idea of divine intervention. Thanksgiving was at that time associated with giving thanks to God, not to other men, and because of this Jefferson did not declare any thanksgiving days during his presidency. James Madison renewed the tradition in 1814. Madison also declared the holiday twice in 1815; however, none of these were celebrated in conjunction with autumn or the harvest.

The Civil War

Thanksgiving as we know it came to life during the American Civil War. In 1863 Lincoln, in a bid for national unity, declared a national day of Thanksgiving, to be celebrated the final Thursday of November, 1863. Of this decision William Seward, Lincoln’s secretary of state, wrote:

Thanksgiving menu from the Mill Pond Club, Shakopee, 1956. From the SCHS Collections

 In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom….It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving. 

Since the Civil war a Thanksgiving, in one form or another, has been celebrated annually in the United States. While traditions have varied from feasts to shooting matches, charitable works to football games, Thanksgiving continues to be a time when Americans gather with family and friends to be thankful for the good things that have happened that year.

At the Scott County Historical Society, we are thankful for the wonderful members, volunteers and donors who help us to keep our doors open each day. We are also thankful for the interest in history and community that drives visitors to stop in and attend events. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Armistice Day

From “As I Remember Scott County”. Passage written by Kathleen Walsh, Belle Plaine

I was about thirteen years old when the word came on November 7, 1918 that World War 1 was over. It was a nasty, cold, rainy day and the town went wild. were were dismissed from school and ran around excited, but to our great disappointment, the evening news brought the word of false report. News reports were much different back then and the telephone was our fastest dispenser of good and bad news.

The O’Connor girls, Ann and Winnie, were the telephone operators then. November 11, about 4:00am, the call came in that the War was officially over. Winnie, the night operator, called Ann. She got up and dressed and went across the street to ring out the good tidings on the bells of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

My sister and I had collected noise makers after the false  alarm so we were ready when the real news came. Some of the young men of the borough had stuffed a suit of clothes to represent the Kaiser and had made a cannon noise maker and shot the Kaiser at day break, put the remains in an old style casket from the local undertaker, put that on a flat sled- like thing and lined up for a parade.

Later in the day farmers came to town on steam engines screeching whistles and the band played and we all marched in the parade that followed. It was a day full of excitement and memorable indeed.

Armistice Day, Belle Plaine, 1918. From the SCHS collections

Armistice Day, Belle Plaine, 1918. From the SCHS collections