1855 Handwritten Recipe Book Archive and Diary, Schaefferstown, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania

, (1855); Unique 19th c. recipe archive to include four handwritten recipe books, of which three are individually signed as Mary A. Zimmerman, A. M. Zimmerman, or M. Zimmerman respectively, the first dated 1855. A number of the recipes are attributed to other family or community members, such as "Old Mrs. Weigley’s Cake Receipt," "Mrs. Kurtz’s Ginger Cake," "Aunty Bromberger and Grandmother Rex’s Plaster For Burns And Scalds," etc. Here are a wealth of recipes for various cakes, breads, puddings, sauces, custards, pickled fruits, beverages, etc., including Lemon Cake, Yankee Cake, Delicate Cake, Lady Cake, Queen Cake, Moonlight Cake, Funnel Cake, Fritters, Jennie Lind Cake, Sally Lunn Cake, Scotch Cake, numerous Ginger Breads and Corn Breads, Snow Balls, Baked Apple Dumplings, Shoo-Fly Pie, Jumbles, Jelly Roll Cake, Farina Plum Pudding, Coconut Pudding, Dough Pudding, Flannel Cakes, Waffles, Blackberry Syrup, Tomato Catsup, Apple Jelly, Pear Marmalade, Pickled Quince, Pickled Cantaloupe, Raspberry Vinegar, Currant Shrub, Currant Wine, Beer, etc., as well as recipes for yeast making, homemade soaps, washing compound, bluing, vegetable dyes, and home remedies such as a wash for the hair and treatments for Scarlet Fever and Smallpox. Together with the above is a substantial store of recipes handwritten on sheets or salvaged scraps of paper or clipped from newspapers of the period. Examples include Unfermented Grape Juice (1897), Rice Pudding (1894), Grape Wine (1897), Mrs. Shaeffer’s Sugar Cake (1894), Alice Geik’s Dandelion Wine (1892), Cream Candy (1873), "No Matters," Railroad Cake (1902), Sugar Cake (1894), Pickled Citron Melon, and Yellow Tomato Marmalade. Included are an illustrated handbill advertising Van Orsdel’s Improved Porous Plaster, and a small advertising card for Dr. Bull’s Baby Syrup, both with recipes written on their backs. Likewise, the front fragments of two 1870’s stamped envelopes addressed to Tillie Zimmerman and Millie Zimmerman at Schaefferstown have recipes written thereon -- one on the front, the other on the back. Of particular interest is the volume in marbled blue covers, a front portion of which contains recipes, and the back portion the diary of a young girl, most probably a daughter, chronicling her first visit to Philadelphia to stay with relatives from August 30th to October 14th, 1855. There are descriptions of trips to the city for shopping and attendance at the theater (she didn’t like it -- she much preferred the quiet country life of Schaefferstown to the urban bustle), to Kensington to see acquaintances, Germantown to visit cousins, a large horticultural and agricultural exhibit, out riding with cousin Jake to Chestnut Hill and the Wissahickon (where she was much taken by its beauty), a stop at the Log Cabin Inn to see the animals, mention of a funeral for Mr. Bidmire’s 18 year old daughter, a trip to hear Mr. Shaeffer preach at the Lutheran church, etc. Dozens of relatives and friends are mentioned, such as Cousin George Rex, Isadore Rex, Uncle Cyrus, Mr. Bonner, Aunt Peggy, Aunt Kitty Bockius, Annie Eberly, Amanda Bockius, Sister Mary, The Neumans, Uncle A.’s store, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Meyers, Nerva, Mrs. Charley King, Lester, cousin Kiran, Lizzy Hinkle, et. al. A unique collection, providing an inside view into the earnest lives of the rural families of 19th century America, with particular association to Pennsylvania.