This salon features a presentation by five students selected this past fall as Folger Undergraduate Fellows. The Fellows took part in an intensive seminar during January term to work in close collaboration with Folger staff and with a group of postdoctoral researchers to engage in a 360-degree investigation of an 18th-century manuscript recipe book from the Folger Shakespeare Library collection. Students examined how the book was put together; investigated its users, contributors and sources; and identified seasonal ingredients, preservation methods and ingredients made available through trade routes and institutionalized slavery. They transcribed, edited and adapted recipes, uncovered implicit knowledge and hidden labor encoded in the recipes, and even recreated selected recipes.
Student presenters: Sarah Edelson '23, Hildi Gabel '21, Maddie Hahm '23, Kate Lester '22, and Anna Smith '22.
Folger Shakespeare Library staff: Dr. Heather Wolfe, curator of manuscripts; Dr. Amanda Herbert, associate director of fellowships
The Folger Shakespeare Library is one of the world’s premier research libraries. Its founder, Henry Clay Folger, graduated from Amherst in 1879 and bequeathed the Library to Amherst upon his death in 1930.