Cooking Up Change: Women’s Agency and Community Building Through Cookbooks

Drawn from the Schlesinger Library’s extensive collection of more than 4,300 community cookbooks, Cooking Up Change: Women’s Agency and Community Building Through Cookbooks explores the history and cultural significance of community cookbooks spanning the 19th to the 21st centuries. The collection showcases the efforts of women’s groups within a variety of organizations to raise funds for their religious, educational, and civic causes while also documenting the social and cultural history of their varied communities and culinary traditions.

Featuring cookbooks from diverse geographic regions and racial and ethnic communities, this exhibition invites visitors to consider how foodways and community advocacy intersect. Archival materials from local organizations offer insights into the production and marketing of these fundraising tools, while volumes with handmade and artistic elements show the physical and creative work that went into making them. Heavily annotated and food-stained pages demonstrate how these well-loved cookbooks found a place in homes within these communities and beyond. Through recipes and reflections, Cooking Up Change celebrates the power of shared cooking traditions and the enduring legacy of women’s community building through the kitchen.