Innocently cruising around the computer machine just now, when I should be asleep, I stumbled onto this site, Feeding America, which is a project from Michigan State University Library and the MSU Museum. It looks like it has been around awhile, but is totally new to me. They have digitized 75 vintage American cookbooks form their very large collection, available to view or download as PDFs. This site is like some sort of evil drug for me.
Sigh. This almost hurts. It's not just the recipes that kill me, it's the book titles, writing style, and eclectic homemaking subjects. Throw in the old-timey layouts and beautiful fonts—I have a neck cramp and eye strain from staring at the screen too long.
These images are all from this amazing site, where you too can learn to make a mock turtle soup, if you have four pounds of meat, and a calf's head. Also, don't miss in medicinal tips, you can make a bacon bandage for a sore throat. And did you know old wallpaper may be cleaned by rubbing with a loaf of stale bread?
Come on! How rad is this?? I am at a loss for words.
*tip—When using your precious time looking at these books (if you don't want to download the very big PDFs), you can type in the exact page number you want to view in the URL line, (at the very end of the address) so you don't have to click through every page of the book. Look at the book's table of contents to give you a sense of where to skip to.