Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

Eliza C. Kane of New York City collected recipes, business cards, and other material in this volume around the 1840s-1850s. The recipes pertain to baked goods, food preparation and storage, and household products.

Eliza C. Kane of New York City collected recipes, business cards, and other material in this volume (approximately 82 pages) around the 1840s-1850s. The recipes pertain to baked goods, food preparation and storage, and household products. Business cards and calling cards are pasted into the volume's endpapers, as well as the bookplate of Grenville Kane.

Pages 1-64 primarily contain manuscript recipes attributed to various women, including Eliza C. Kane. The recipes are for baked goods such as waffles, cakes, and puddings; beverages, including bitters; pickled walnuts; brandied peaches; Madeira nuts, cured beef; jellies; and catsups. Two recipes concern "Indian cakes" and "Indian baked pudding." Instructions for dressing a calf's head, making cologne, and mixing a "southern cough remedy" are also included. The recipes are copied in several hands, and one is dated June 3, 1845. Some pages have addresses for businesses and private residences. Additional items are pinned or pasted into the volume, including a gas company circular, a manuscript note to Eliza C. Kane (with a recipe), and printed recipes. One recipe is pasted over a manuscript copy of the title page from William Lee's The Excellent Properties of Brandy and Salt as an Efficacious Medicine in Several Dangerous Diseases Incident to Mankind. In 1854, the Croton Aqueduct Department fined Eliza C. Kane for a violation of its rules related to street washing; the receipt for her subsequent payment is pasted into the volume.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Maxson collection provides a valuable resource for the study of 19th-century visual culture, commercial advertising, and humor in addition to the role of gender, ethnicity, and race in advertising. American businesses are the predominant focus of the collection, though many international businesses are also represented. While trade cards are by far the most prevalent type of ephemera found in this collection, an extensive array of genres are present including die cut scrapbook pieces, photographs, engravings, maps, serials, and manuscript materials.

The 23 binders that house the Maxson collection were arranged by the collectors themselves. Items are organized somewhat randomly in terms of topical arrangement. While pockets of related materials can be found here and there (for instance, the entirety of Volume 16 contains circus-related items while Volume 11 contains an extensive number of Shaker-related materials), for the most part any given subject may appear in any given volume. In some cases, items are clustered as a result of having been acquired together or due to a documented common provenance. Occasional typed annotations written by the Maxsons help provide additional context for certain items.

The Maxson Collection Subject Index serves as a volume-level subject index for materials found throughout the binders. The subjects indexed here are generally representative of both visual and commercial content. In addition to more general subjects, many names of specific people, places, buildings, events, and organizations that appear in the materials have also been listed. Researchers engaging with this collection should be aware that they will encounter numerous examples of racist caricatures, especially ones depicting African American, Native American, Irish, and Chinese people.