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The Abigail Clark Farley collection is made up of essays, poetry, letters, and fiction that Farley wrote around the 1860s and 1870s. Topics include slavery, the Civil War, Seventh-day Adventists, and the state of Wisconsin.

The Abigail Clark Farley collection is made up of approximately 150 pages of essays, poetry, letters, and fiction that Farley wrote around the 1860s and 1870s. Some individual items contain more than one work, and she occasionally practiced decorated penmanship. The lengthiest item is a story entitled "Slander," a 52-page work (pages 5-8 are not present), and other essays or letters are as long as 4 pages. Though most items are attributed to Abigail Clark (later Abigail Farley), some are excerpts from other sources, such as "The Narative of Lewis Clark" [sic].

Around the time of the Civil War, Farley wrote essays expressing her opposition to slavery and her feelings about the war's high death toll. In many letters, poems, and essays, she commented on Seventh-day Adventism, various religious and moral topics, and friendship. Other essays and copied poems concern nature and the geography of Wisconsin. A group of elegiac poems are accompanied by genealogical notes. The collection includes a brief biographical note about Queen Victoria.

Abigail Farley's letters include an item written under a male pseudonym chastising a female acquaintance for unbecoming behavior (October 7, 1865) and a letter to Ellen G. White about her new husband's abusive behavior (March 28, 1871). One manuscript concerns a prophecy that came to Quaker minister Joseph Hoag. Small ink drawings of birds appear on one page of poems. One item documents partial terms for Abigail Clark's employment as a penmanship instructor. The collection includes recipes for lemon pies, rheumatic drops, several kinds of cake, and nerve ointment.

This volume contains financial records pertaining to David P. Gerberich of Niles, Michigan, as well as other accounts and recipes. Daybook accounts pertain to sales of whiskey in Washington, Illinois, and of ales and foodstuffs in Howard, Michigan; later financial accounts relate to farm labor and personal expenses. The volume also includes culinary, medicinal, and household recipes.

This volume (around 320 pages) contains financial records pertaining to David P. Gerberich of Niles, Michigan, as well as other accounts and recipes. Daybook accounts pertain to sales of whiskey in Washington, Illinois, and of ales and foodstuffs in Howard, Michigan; later financial accounts relate to farm labor and personal expenses. The volume also includes culinary, medicinal, and household recipes.

The first section (pages 1-174) contains daybook records for sales of whiskey and other goods in Washington, [Illinois], from April 1, 1840-December 11, 1841. The merchant's customers included members of the Gerberich family. David P. Gerberich's daybook records sales of dry goods, especially wheat, as well as meats and other goods in "Kingsbury" and "Belmont" from August 6, 1842-September 6, 1845 (pages 178-181) and at Howard Township, [Michigan], from August 1868-February 27, 1872 (pages 187-238) and [March?] 8, 1873-July 27, 1873 (page 243). Page 182 contains a list of household expenses, pages 240-241 are comprised of estate records (November 3, 1873-December 10, 1873), and pages 244-293 contain accounts dated September 13, 1883-1888, which largely pertain to farm labor, livestock, blacksmithing, and personal expenses. Pages 178-238 and 183-186 of the daybook are missing.

Additional financial records and notes appear on pages 302 and 321-324. Pages 248-258 and 268-272 include recipes for food and household products such as cured meats, baked goods, and cleaning solutions.

Items laid into the volume include an 1888 receipt for Mrs. Gerberich's purchase of lumber from John L. Reddick in Niles, Michigan, dried leaves, and a blank fire insurance application for D. P. Gerberich of Niles, Michigan.

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.

New York Harbor shipper John Wheelwright kept this receipt book, documenting money paid out in his deals with ships and cargoes between 1829 and 1834. Payments include purchases of ownership in vessels, ship chandlery, cleaning, molasses, pipes, nankeen, wages for sailors and captains, coal, beef, wood, pork, lifeboats, nails, wharfage, cod, whiting, mackerel, tobacco, flaxseed, blacksmiths, candles, joiners, provisions, a second hand fore-sail, main yard, sugar, blocks, cooperage, painting labor, house rent, newspaper subscriptions, and more. The receiving party signed each receipt. An anonymous, subsequent owner pasted 148 handwritten recipes and 129 printed recipes and formulas over sections of Wheelwright's receipts. Recipes cover or partially cover 110 of 212 pages of the receipt book.

New York Harbor shipper John Wheelwright kept this receipt book, documenting money paid out in his deals with ships and cargoes between 1829 and 1834. Ships mentioned include schooners Washington, 4th of July, Shamrock, Cambridge, Tribune, Gov. Clinton, Delta (Honduras), Active, John Ruggles, Mayflower, Caroline, Hero (Boston), Rufus, Harriet, Transport, and New York; and brigs Betsy, Albert, Henry, Calais Packet, Samaritan (Pictou, Nova Scotia), Levant (Cape Cod), Martha Ann, Only Son, Amazon, Montano (New Orleans), Trumbull, Napoleon, Brilliant, and Asoph. Payments include purchases of ownership in vessels, ship chandlery, cleaning, molasses, pipes, nankeen, wages for sailors and captains, coal, beef, wood, pork, lifeboats, nails, wharfage, cod, whiting, mackerel, tobacco, flaxseed, blacksmiths, candles, joiners, provisions, a second hand fore-sail, main yard, sugar, blocks, cooperage, painting labor, house rent, newspaper subscriptions, and more. The receiving party signed each receipt.

An anonymous, subsequent owner pasted 148 handwritten recipes and 129 printed recipes and formulas over sections of Wheelwright's receipts between the 1830s and 1860s. Recipes cover or partially cover 110 of 212 pages of the receipt book.

This collection comprises 28 American manuscript recipe books dated from 1793 to 1959 with the bulk dating from the nineteenth century. One of the books contains portions in German, while the rest are in English. Most regions of the United States are present, with the Northeast and Southern States best represented. Desserts represent the bulk of the recipes, cakes being the most popular. Some recipes include attributes to friends, family, or cookbooks, and some contain notes on quality of the dish. Directions for making medicinal remedies and practical household needs (such as cleaning product recipes or advice on fabric care) may also be included. Many volumes contain handwritten or printed inserts.

This collection comprises 28 American manuscript recipe books dated from 1793 to 1959 with the bulk dating from the nineteenth century. One of the books contains portions in German, while the rest are in English. Most regions of the United States are present, with the Northeast and Southern States best represented. Desserts represent the bulk of the recipes cakes being the most popular. Some recipes include attributes to friends, family, or cookbooks, and some contain notes on quality of the dish. Directions for making medicinal remedies and practical household needs (such as cleaning product recipes or advice on fabric care) may also be included. Many volumes contain handwritten or printed inserts.

All or most of the known authors of these recipe books appear to be by women. A man, James Campbell, authored the accounting portion of the Campbell receipt book and a male writer may have created the Manuscript Recipe Book, [1838]. Emma Hinricks Hilken is the only one known to have resided outside the United States when writing her recipe book (she resided in Frankfurt, Germany, for several years following her marriage). The women range in age from teenagers to the elderly and represent a variety of social backgrounds. Most of the recipe books were written or compiled in the second half of the nineteenth century, with some extending into the early twentieth. Approximately one-fifth of them were written in the first half of the nineteenth century or earlier.

See the box and folder listing below for a complete descriptive list of the recipe books present in this collection.

The Sarah Logan Fisher Wister collection is made up of 2 volumes that belonged to Wister in the mid-19th century: a recipe book and an account book that Wister also used as a diary. The recipe book contains instructions for preparing a variety of foods and household cleaners, and the account book/diary contains entries about family news, Pennsylvania travel, and the Civil War.

The Sarah Logan Fisher Wister collection is made up of 2 volumes that belonged to Wister in the mid-19th century: a recipe book and an account book that Wister also used as a diary.

The Recipe Book (begun on June 18, [1843]) contains around 190 pages of notes about food preparation and household cleaners. Wister copied instructions for preparing foods such as baked goods, beef, chicken, potatoes, pickled foods, and soups. A few recipes are attributed to other authors, and some appear on newspaper clippings pasted into the volume.

The Account Book and Diary (around 100 pages, not all of which are used) contains about 10 pages of accounts related to wages paid to Anne [Sherman] from 1860-1862, and to costs associated with Margaret Rodgers, who lived with the Wister family from 1860-1863. The Rodgers accounts mainly concern clothing, and some notes pertain to the Wakefield School. The remainder of the volume contains non-chronological entries written between 1860 and 1872. The majority of the entries are dated from the early 1860s, though some concern events that occurred in the 1840s and 1850s. Most entries relate to news of the Wisters' family and acquaintances, and travel to Duncannon and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Wister also wrote about Native Americans living on land belonging to her brother in 1848 and 1853, a trip to Boston in March 1868, the flooding of the Susquehanna River in mid-March 1865, her sons' Civil War service, and the Union Army's capture of Richmond, Virginia, in April 1865. A newspaper obituary for Mrs. George B. Emerson and a recipe for "Dr. William Stoy's Infallible Cure for Hydrophobia" are laid and pinned into the volume, respectively.