The White House Cookbook History

The very first White House Cook Book was published in 1887 by a lady named Fanny lemia Gillette. She had been compiling what would becoe one of the most important cookbooks to date for almost 40 years. Inside are recipes for cosmestics to cleaners, how-to's on hospitality to child rearing. Everything the lady of the house from the vistorian era ought to know. It's great tips on almost every topic made this cookbook a favorite for brides-to-be. Besides having some engravings of a few of the first ladies it lacks any of the facts about the White House itself.

Later editions featured Hugo Ziemann, the White House Steward as a co-author who included facts and illustrations of the famous house. Most of the editions include a picture the current first lady at the time of printing was, on the front piece of the book. They have amazing illustrations showing the interior of the white house that included presidential table settings and all of the classic famous prseidential rooms.
The very early editions are incredibly hard to find largely due to printing on poor quality paper, making the pages brittle and succeptable to damage. So quality and condition play a VERY big part in the value of this antique cookbook.
A great keepsake and rare collectible from any publication date makes this a true american treasure!

5 comments:

Janelle said...

I have this book. What's it worth?

Janelle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Duska said...

Hi there! Thank you for your post. I have acquired an 1887 first edition of this cookbook. I was wondering if in your research you found anything out about its value?

Susan said...

I have this book. Dug it out of the trash along with Feed The Hungry by Julia Wright. Both in brittle shape, but I love reading them.

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Vintage Cookbooks are for everyone who has ever wanted to bake something special and turned to a modern cookbook and realized they never seem to have all the ingredients at the same time, there're for history lovers that want to feel connected to the past in a way that's missing in history books, there're for the people that love that musty old book smell and laugh at kindle's, they're for people that feel like we as a society have gone a little too far, a tad off course with life and want to get back to the simple and the real, and they're for the people that want to pay homage to all the grandma's and great aunts that did it best!

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