The Housekeeper’s Almanac

Or, The Young Wife's Oracle! for 1840!

By American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection

This volume in the American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection, published in New York in 1839, is an authentic almanac of the day with weather, calendar, and astronomical notes, but it also contains over 250 recipes and housekeeping advice for homemakers of the day.

The unnamed author of this charming almanac/cookbook concoction was as a “lady of [New York] who has kept an extensive Boarding-house, for twenty-two years in Pearl St.” She took her almanac word for word, even using the same typesetting, from the most recent Farmer’s Almanac for 1840 by David Young. But in addition to the traditional almanac information on daily and monthly calendars, weather, and astronomical events, she included over 250 recipes in the art of cooking, pastry, and confectionary, useful household memorandums, and simple cures.

This edition of The Housekeeper’s Almanac was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the Society is a research library documenting the life of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The Society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection includes approximately 1,100 volumes.