Libraries are your friend!

Okay, first...I'm alive.

Second...libraries are your friend.  I expect you knew that already.  However, over the weekend I was reminded of the joys that are University libraries. A couple of librarians from the University of Iowa were speaking at a conference/convention I was at, and mid-way through their presentation a lightbulb went on over my head.  Louis Szathmary...University of Iowa special collections.  I asked and was told that yes, they had his collection. The best part?  Some of it is digitized.

Louis Szathmary was a Hungarian chef and bibliophile who emigrated to the United States in 1951 and became one of the early celebrity chefs, though his television appearances were limited to other peoples' shows.  He amassed a collection of 18,000 or so food and cookery books,  pamphlets, manuscripts and menus.

Szathmary's collection, in his own words, with links

While looking at the UI special collections, I was pleased to see that they also have Evelyn Birkby's papers. Evelyn Birkby was "Iowa's Best-Known Homemaker"...she had a radio program starting in 1950, and continued on the radio until 1991. During that time she also wrote newspaper columns and books.

A link to the digitized portions of her collection

Other University collections that might be of interest (but who don't seem to be quite as into digitizing and sharing online -- I may be wrong, I haven't poked around as much as I should have before writing this) are

Kansas State University, Clementine Paddleford collection

University of Michigan, Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive

Have any other suggestions for me?