The Alan and Shirley Brocker Sliker Culinary Collection

Little Cookbooks contains thousands of food and cookery related publications produced primarily by companies in the United States from the late nineteenth century up to the present. The collection provides a rich resource to study the evolution and history of advertising, food products, individual companies, technology, food preparation, and food production. It was organized, described, and donated in 2005 by Shirley Brocker Sliker, who continues to add items to the collection.

In 2006 the Alan and Shirley Brocker Sliker Library Endowment was established to enhance Little Cookbooks through acquisitions, conservation, digitization, and dissemination endeavors. Thanks to this generosity, efforts are now underway to describe and when possible digitize and create a fully searchable freely available online collection. Little Cookbooks is an ongoing project. New items from various companies are being scanned regularly. The images of these items are added to the site after quality assurance and copyright permission checks have been performed.

Shirley J. Brocker Sliker's Biography

Please visit the Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections, Michigan State University Libraries, to see the print copy if it is not available electronically.

Copyright Information

These materials are either in the public domain according to U.S. copyright law, permission has been obtained from copyright owners, or best effort has been made to find the copyright holders to ask permission. If you have reason to think otherwise please let us know. The digital version and supplementary materials are available for all educational uses worldwide.

Items from the Collection

Browse Collection
  • The front is black and has a large red circle with the Arm and Hammer logo in the center. The back features a package of Arm and Hammer Soda. Below it reads, "Guaranteed by the manufacturers under the Food and Drugs Act. June 30, 1906. Serial No. 2046." Machine punched hole is in the upper left corner.

  • The front cover features a woman draped in a flag dropping oat stalks from her left hand and holding three oat stalks in her right hand. Two circles representing the world are behind "Cereal Foods" within an orange frame. The back cover has a large box of Quaker Rolled White Oats on a blue background with an orange frame.

  • The front cover is bright royal blue with a jar of peaches and one of cherries. There are vegetables and fruit in front of the jars. There is a light blue diagonal line behind the jars. The title is at the bottom in light blue and the word Ball in green. The back cover is the same blue with the diagonal light blue line and two empty Ball jars in front. The front end page has a typed letter to Home Makers from the company. There is a tipped in page with cities and times for the company's radio program. The title page indicates it is edition O-2 with pictures of fruits and vegetables. There are color illustrations and black and white illustrations. The book has instructions for canning fruits, juices, jellies, jams, vegetables, meat, poultry, and fish, soups, conserves, and preserves. There are sections on pickling, important rules for canning, and methods of canning. There are three pages advertising Ball Jars.

  • The front cover features a drawing of a proud housewife showing of her gelatin mold to another woman. The other woman is wearing a large blue hat adorned with an ostrich feather and a blue feather boa. The title "JELL-O America's Most Famous Dessert" is written in red and black lettering at the top of the illustration. The back cover's illustration is a large yellow JELL-O rectangle on a cut glass dish superimposed over the "House that JELL-O Built." The inside pages are dedicated to various recipes that utilize different flavors of JELL-O in them. All recipe names are stated in red lettering and are followed by directions on how to prepare the dish written in blue lettering. Some of the recipes listed are Fruited Jell-O, Chocolate Nut Jell-O, Almond Cherry, and Roman Mousse. There are various illustrations located throughout the inside pages of young woman and a different flavor of Jell-O. At the centerfold, there are six different illustrations of Jell-O desserts. Also includes an insert with the heading "JELL-O Ice Cream Powder makes Ice Cream and Puddings. Do not mistake JELL-O ICE CREAM POWDER for JELL-O." The insert is four pages.

  • The front cover shows a can of Calumet Baking Powder centered with blue rays radiating outwards. The background is light blue. The back reads, "$1,000.00 Given for any substance injuries to health found in food prepared with Calumet Baking Powder." An orange certificate with blue rays radiating outwards is on a light blue background. The front title is repeated on the back. Machine punched hole in the upper left. 64 pages.

  • The front panel has a jar of canned tomatoes with the title over it in white lettering. The back panel is a green background with four jars of canned produce. Kerr "self sealing" is written on three of them. The fourth jar is a decorative kitchen jam or relish jar. Kerr is outlined in white on the background. Both end pages have advertisements for Kerr products. There are no illustrations.

  • The front cover is beige with a light blue ornate Victorian background. On the sides are white boxes of Vanilla and Lemon Extracts and in the center is a red oval with a boy chef holding a cake in his left hand. The company name is on a pink ribben below. The back cover is beige with a boy in a white shirt, tie, tweed jacket, and red knickers holding his hat in one hand while holding a large black and white box of Lemon Extract. This company also lists includes Boston, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in its cities.

  • Front cover has a large bag of "Mother's Flour" in the center. Title is in red against a deep blue background. The frame is a green Greek Key design. Back cover is plain with the same frame. No page numbers.