Embedded Files
Work for some good Be it ever so slowlyCherish some flower Be it ever so lowlyLabor, all laborIs noble and holy
- Epigraph to The Knoxville Cook Book
Originally published in 1901, The Knoxville Cook Book is a text that contains far more than simply a collection of "practical tested recipes" as promised on its title-page. It also provides a window into the rapidly changing landscape of Knoxville, Tennessee at the turn of the century and onto the US South and the nation as a whole.
"Cooking Up a Movement: The Knoxville Cook Book, Suffrage, and Women's Activism in Tennessee," a model archival research project created for ENGL 102 at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, explores just some of the insights this text has to offer about the culture and foodways of its authors, readers, and the city they called home.
Most compellingly, this project finds that The Knoxville Cook Book, authored by and published by the board of the Knoxville Woman's Building as a fundraiser for its upkeep, represents a unique moment in Tennessee and the nation's, at the time, growing Women's Rights movement. It's authors and the organizations they represent would go on to be instrumental in activism that eventually culminated in the state of Tennessee becoming the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment in the summer of 1920, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Click "Next" below to enter the exhibit and learn more.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse