Special Collections and Archival Materials


Harvard Digital Collections (food)
This resources contains free, public access to more than 6 million objects digitized from Harvard's collections - from ancient art to modern manuscripts and audio visual materials. The link defaults to search results for the query "food" (which turns up things like recipe collections), but you may search the database for other key terms, as well.

History of Food and Dining at Harvard 
Here you’ll find almost everything you ever wanted to know about the history of food and dining at the University. From the Early records of the Steward, 1649-1812 to Harvard's Web Archive Collection Service, the University Archives collections serve up an extensive and diverse collection of material related to eating, drinking, and being merry across centuries and dining rooms.

Historic Cookbooks at Schlesinger Library
Start your research on historic cookbooks with this guide. The Schlesinger Library holds more than 100,000 volumes, ranging from rare 16th-century texts to 21st-century titles. Approximately 20,000 of these volumes are cookbooks or food-related. Many of the titles highlighted in this guide were included in an exhibition at the Schlesinger Library, Cookbooks to Treasure: Culinary Rarities from the Schlesinger Library, from December 2015 to February 2016.

Harvard Library Research Guides

Food
Visit the above link to view a variety of library research guides on food and foodways, curated by Harvard Librarians. For example, these included guides on cooking, chefts and food writers, agriculture, Julia Child, and more!

Library Research Guide for HIST E-1710: More Than Just a Meal: American Food, a Global History
This guide is selective and intended as a point of departure for food history research.