Cooking in History

How abfab are these recipe books! I spied these at an estate sale today, and scooped them up for Etsy or Ebay.  

The silver one is an aluminum binder that closes up like a box. Recipes are from Pillsbury Flour Mills, dated 1933. 

This appears to be an early example of those cookbooks you add recipes to as you get them.  

 Each recipe is removable, cut the size of index cards, but made from thin paper. Remarkably good condition for its age.

Lots of history within this book. The cover was designed by a commercial artist, founder of a very successful graphic sign company, still in existence today.

Clearly a labor of love, it was originally assembled by the Ladies of St John's Guild of Wisconsin in 1949. This book was obviously a very successful fundraiser, as this copy is from their 8th printing. 

They had a Milwaukee designer create these beautiful category sketches, depicting local landmarks.

I find it thoroughly charming that it was published using each guild member's hand-written recipe and name, rather than typed to look the same. Really gives it that small town feel, like a community of women who exchanged recipes over the years.

The charming cartoons throughout the book were drawn by a young lady who is a descendant of a prominent artist from the 1800's. She is now a board member of the Museum of Wisconsin Art.

These two culinary treasures appearing on Etsy and Ebay tonight!