Catharine Beecher (1800-1878), the sister of the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, was an early feminist and advocate of women’s education. Beecher was at the forefront of the home economics movement in the nineteenth century. She sought to increase the status of traditional women’s work such as cooking and childcare, arguing for its value to society and the need for female education to inform this work.
Beecher published her Treatise on Domestic Economy in 1841. The book combined useful household hints with Beecher’s radical views on women’s rights and education. Surprisingly, the book was a great success; fifteen editions were published in the next fifteen years. As supplements to the Treatise, Beecher published several other cooking and household management books, including Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book.
Ellen’s Pudding, or Rhubarb Tart
From Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book
One pint of stewed pie plant.
Four ounces of sugar.
One half pint of cream.
Two ounces of pounded cracker.
Three eggs
Stew the pie plant, and rub it through a sieve. Beat the eggs well, and mix with the sugar and cream. Stir the cracker crumbs into the fruit, and add the other ingredients. Line your plate with a moderately rich paste, and bake half an hour.
See the full text at the Hathi Trust
Don’t miss Food Sense, the 2012 Life Sciences and Society Symposium, March 16-18. SCARaB will be participating with an exhibition of books on science and nutrition.
As the oldest girl in a family of twenty-one children, Isabella Mayson (1836–1865) had ample practice in the domestic arts by the time she married Samuel Beeton at the age of 20. Samuel was an innovative editor and publisher, and Isabella participated fully in his publishing business, putting her domestic skills to work as editor of the English Woman's Domestic Magazine. The year after her marriage, Isabella also began work on the monumental compendium of domestic science that is The Book of Household Management. The book was first published it in 1861, when Isabella was only 25, and it was an immediate success due to her attention to accuracy, economy, and taste.
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on this date in 1812. Dickens, one of the most famous and most belov
ed of all English novelists, created some of the most powerful characters in fiction. He is known all over the world, and, unlike most great authors, he was rock-star famous in his own time. He moved around a lot as a child and was forced to quit school at twelve years old to work in a factory. Those early memories, however, would later inspire settings both fantastic and real; characters both legendary and sympathetic.
Sketches by Boz, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, and American Notes.
The first of these pairings was with George Cruikshank, a popular cartoonist at the time. The author and illustrator became great friends, though their relationship soured due to many factors including Cruikshank’s growing obsession with the Temperance movement.
Knight Browne worked with Dickens for over 23 years. He adopted the nickname Phiz to complement Dickens’ Boz.
“No other illustrator ever created the true Dickens characters with the precise and correct quantum of exaggeration.”
Celebrate his 200th birthday by dropping by Special Collections in Ellis Library to read the stories as Dickens so meticulously intended. We have many of his greatest works, some beautifully bound, dating from the beginning of the author’s literary career. Experience what created this pop sensation first-hand!
In March,Special Collections, Archives and Rare Books will be participating in 
Jennifer Para is a freshman from Rogers, Arkansas, majoring in business. As part of 
Glancing through rare books at Ellis Library, a certain leather bound novel with a delicate design imprinted into the spine catches your eye. The marbled paper cover reminds you of exquisite stones with white and gold specks reflecting the bouncing sun, meshed together in a pond of blood. Touching the book, you are surprised at its smoothness, and you wonder why the book does not fall apart at your caress. On the book’s spine you notice gold lettering revealing the title of the book: Aeneidos. This epic poem is a 1583 copy of Phaer and Twyne’s translation of Virgil’s Aeneid.
teen you find the authors’ letter to their readers. Phaer and Twyne intended their translation of the Aeneid to be read by “maisters and students of universities,” who “will not bee too much offended,” by their raw translation, and “pray they will correct the errors escaped in the printing.”
you see calligraphy and make out words “Hugh Bateman”, “Thomas Payne”, “1767 London”, “Dronfield”. Partaking in more research, you find record of several Hugh Batemans at Dronfield.
SC: What advice would you give to faculty or instructors interested in using Special Collections in their courses?
exams. Of course, Special Collections is always ready to help. This week, we’re sharing a 280-year-old secret from the 
The words in brackets are the mnemonic devices, with the code at the end that represents the year in letters. If a student were called upon in an exam to produce an entire chronology of world events (as students often were in the eighteenth century), he could simply remember what Grey calls the “Memorial Line”: Diocleseko Mahomaudd Yezsid. Grey points out that the system is also adaptable to geography, astronomy, weights and measures, and the study of ancient coins.
readers, his work was hugely popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Memoria Technica remained in print for over 130 years, and was in fact the only pre-1800 book on memory to remain in use for so long.
