Collection guides

About the collection

The British Library holds many manuscripts that offer insights into the practices of cookery and culinary tastes through the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The 1800s saw vast industrial development across the UK, a rapidly growing population, technological advances in transport, food production and food preservation, as well as an ever-increasing volume of food being brought to Britain from across the British Empire and elsewhere. This increased the quality, quantity and diversity of food, which can be recognised in culinary manuscripts from the time. As well as a continuing presence of culinary manuscripts among the collections of aristocratic families and estates, such as those relating to Dropmore House, there are more manuscripts to be found among the papers of the growing middle-classes of the era. The collection also reflects the increasing literacy and survival of manuscripts left by domestic servants in the home with the papers of the housekeeper of Kew Palace and later in the papers of Grace Higgens, domestic servant to the writer Vita Sackville-West.

In the 1900s, the traditional manuscript recipe book became less fashionable during the 20^th century as popular printed cookery books became increasingly available and cheap to buy. Some manuscript recipes drafted in the 20^th century can still be seen in the collections, but they tend to be found among the personal papers of individuals recorded as notes, rather than as distinct manuscript cookery books created with the purpose of being a family resource through generations. As well as personal notes, insights into domestic cooking in the 20^th century can be found in correspondence. The two world wars saw rationing as the availability of food declined and its impact is explored in letters such as those authored by Phyllis and Ernest Gardner during World War One in the Gardner Papers. Some collected recipes from the later 20^th century are found in the archive papers of selected figures, including within the notebooks of the scientist Donald Mitchie and the poet Kathleen Raine.

Highlights

• Mrs Evelyn's Wotton House account book of daily outgoings on food
• Recipe book of Mrs Palmer, housekeeper at Gransden House, dated 1810-1829
• William Henry Fox Talbot's food expenditure account book, 1833-1837
• Accounts of  the kitchen offices of Althorp House including the almonry, bakery, buttery, larder, spicery and wine cellar, dated 1854-1857
• Late 19th century commonplace book containing notes and cuttings of food and drink recipes
• Menu-book for home dinners of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, including names of guests, 1903-1913
• Recipes authored by the opera singer Bertha Lewis, early 20th century
• Powell family WWI rationing ephemera
• Wilson family WWII rationing ephemera

What is available online?

The Explore Archives and Manuscripts catalogue contains catalogue entries for 19th and 20th century culinary manuscripts. 

Information on food in the 19th and 20th centuries is available via the BL learning website’s pages on Books for Cooks.

What is available in our Reading Rooms?

19th and 20^th century culinary manuscripts can be consulted in the Manuscripts Reading Room. Use our online catalogue, Explore Archives and Manuscripts, to find and request this material. Recipes can be located by using the advanced search, entering a preferred start and end date, and then searching with terms like, ‘cookery receipt’, ‘culinary receipt’ or ‘recipe book’ in the search bar.

Please contact the Manuscripts Reference Team for information about accessing restricted items.

What is available in other organisations?

• The Wellcome Collection holds a collection of domestic medicinal and culinary recipe manuscripts dating from the 16th - 19th centuries. Many of these are available to view online.
• Leeds University Library holds many cookery manuscripts in its expansive Cookery Collection.
• The National Library of Scotland holds manuscript recipe books from the 18th century and many of them are available online