Hattie Burr and the first Suffrage cookbook 1886

Hattie A. Colby Burr (1841-1935) compiled a fundraising book, The Woman Suffrage Cookbook, in 1886. While it was the first in the United States, it would not be the last suffrage cookbook until women got the right to vote... in 1920! For a short time she and her husband (a musician and composer) lived on the same street (of 6 houses) as the more well known cookbook author Maria Parloa (1843-1909).

Harriet "Hattie" A. Colby Aiken Burr was the daughter of John P. (1817-1905) and Hannah Rano Colby (1807-62) of Hill, NH. She married Francis "Herrick" Aiken, who died in 1876. In 1879 she married Willard Burr Jr. (1852-1915) and they had no children. Willard was a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music and was a musician and composer. He fought for an international copyright law to protect American composers (U.S. Copyright Act of 1891).

In the 1886 city directory, Willard Burr, Jr. "musician and composer" and Hattie lived at 12 Wayne St in Boston. That was the year she was collecting the recipes. Their names were listed seperately, same address; perhaps due to her fight for equal rights and to vote, or to aid people wanting to send recipes. In the 1893 City Directory, Wayne Street had six homes and “Miss Maria Parloa” (1843-1909), cookbook author, lived at 2 Wayne Street. Parloa was not on that street in the 1886 city directory when Hattie was collecting recipes.

The complete title of the first American fundraising book for women’s right to vote was: The Woman Suffrage Cookbook, containing thoroughly tested and reliable recipes for cooking, directions for the care of the sick, and practical suggestions, contributed especially for this work. Edited and published by Mrs. Hattie A. Burr, 12 Wayne Street, Boston. In aid of the Festival and Bazaar, December 13-19, 1886. “Country Store” April 21-26, 1890. Boston.

“Among the contributors are many who are eminent in their professions as teachers, lecturers, physicians, ministers, and authors,—whose names are household words in the land. A book with so unique and notable a list of contributors, vouched for by such undoubted authority, has never before been given to the public.”

Julia Ward Howe under Miscellaneous
“Whatever other uncertainties we may recognize in values and in markets, it will always pay for women who have money enough to have leisure, to interest themselves in bettering the condition of their sex. It has become honor. able to-day for women, gentle or simple, to earn money. This is as it should be, but for us to deduce therefrom the supposition that women should engage in work only as they are paid for it, would be a lamentable mistake. We must have money to live, and ought to have enough to live well and comfortably; but while life has some supreme interests, money is not one of them. We must do our devoir, whether it brings us in wages or not."


Orange Souffle. Mary A. Livermore
Peel and slice six oranges, removing the seeds. Put in a high glass dish a layer of oranges, then one of sugar, and so on until all the oranges are used. Let it stand two hours. Take yolks of three eggs, one pint of milk, and sugar to the taste. Flavor with the grated orange peel, and make a soft boiled custard and pour over the oranges when cool enough not to break the dish. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, stir in sugar and pour over the pudding and it is done.

SELECT SOURCES
Burr, Hattie. The Woman Suffrage Cookbook. Boston: 1886
NH Historical Society. Guide to the Aiken Family Papers, 1830-1930.
Todd, Charles Burr. A general history of the Burr family, with a genealogical record from 1193 to 1891. NY: 1891
City directories 1886, 1893.

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