Item #0864441193-01 A Bibliography of Australian Cookery. Bette Austin.
A Bibliography of Australian Cookery

A Bibliography of Australian Cookery

Melbourne, Australia: RMIT Publishing, 1987.
Second-hand softcover

Austin, Bette. A Bibliography of Australian Cookery Books Published Prior to 1941. RMIT Publishing: Melbourne, 1987. 8vo (250x170mm) SC [2],xx,178pp (foreword by Alan Davidson). VG-/- minor stains to wraps



AUSTIN, Bette R.

A Bibliography of Australian Cookery Books Published Prior to 1941.

Melbourne, [Australia]: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Libraries. 1987.

4to (250x170mm) softcover xx,178pp. 7 black & white illustrations. Foreword by Alan Davidson.

Gray stiff card wraps lightly soiled & some light edge wear.

Bette Austin was the librarian at the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy branch of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Libraries in the 1980s.

Established in 1927, as a college to teach domestic science exclusively to women, the Emily McPherson College was for many years the only institution in Victoria to teach domestic economy, cooking and dress making. In 1979 the college merged with the adjacent RMIT. The core of the College's significant library on domestic arts remains in the Emily McPherson Collection at RMIT Libraries and formed the basis for this bibliography.  Domestic Arts education developed in Victoria in the years before and after World War I. At the time, there was a significant push for 'scientific' mothering education.

Pedagogical thinking at the time was that mothering skills were not innate and needed to be taught, in the same way that domestic skills needed to be instilled at school. The College's establishment reflected a time when young women's access to post-secondary education was extremely limited; and broader educations often obtainable only in the context of domestic training. 

In 1984, Alan Davidson, the founder of Prospect Books, and the commissioning editor for several of the most important bibliographies on English Cookery, visited Australia to attend the first symposium of Australian Gastronomy. During his travels he visited the Emily McPherson library and, surprised by the extent of 'antipodean' material in the collection, urged the librarians to undertake a bibliography of Australian published books on cookery. The result was this short title bibliography, based on the Emily McPherson Collection; the first bibliography of Australian cookery books.

As Davidson notes "Austin's introduction is a valuable essay which traces the evolution of the cookery book in Australia"
(Petits Propos Culinaires 29, p49)

Scarce; a very good copy.

§ OCLC records only 7 copies held outside Australasia.

Item #0864441193-01
ISBN: 0864441193

Price: $75.00 AUD

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