Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: MC 844

Manuscript cookbook collection of Sophie D. Coe, 1704-1968

Overview

Collection of mostly English-language manuscript cookbooks assembled by anthropologist and food historian Sophie D. Coe.

Dates

  • Creation: 1704-1968

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright in these cookbooks may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.

Copying. Cookbooks may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.

Extent

4.71 linear feet (9 file boxes, 1 folio box)

The collection is arranged by date. Each description includes the author's name, if known; the date and location of the volume, if known; and notes whether the contents refer to the source of the recipe, whether the volume also contains home remedies, household hints, financial records, etc.

BIOGRAPHY

Anthropologist, food historian, and translator, Coe was the daughter of evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky and his wife Natalie. In 1955 she graduated from Radcliffe College and married Michael D. Coe, with whom she worked on various archaeological projects in Mesoamerica and the United States. Instrumental in promoting Yuri V. Khorosov's theories of Maya script in the West through her translation of his Selected Chapters from The Writing of the Maya Indians (1967), she was also a serious student of native New World cooking. Her research in this area culminated in America's First Cuisines (1994). Coe died of cancer in May 1994.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession numbers: 96-M73, 2003-M143

These manuscript cookbooks of Sophie D. Coe were culled from her 1993 gift of published cookbooks to the Schlesinger Library, and transferred to the manuscripts division in 1996. Additional manuscript cookbooks were given by her widower, Michael D. Coe, in November 2003.

Related Material:

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see HOLLIS for records of published volumes donated by Sophie D. Coe.

Processing Information

Processed: December 2015

By: Anne Engelhart

Updated: January 2018

By: Anne Engelhart

Title
Coe, Sophie D. (Sophie Dobzhansky), 1933-1994. Manuscript cookbook collection of Sophie D. Coe, 1704-1968: A Finding Aid
Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
sch01513

Repository Details

Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository

The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.

Contact:
3 James St.
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
617-495-8540