The World of Chocolate

 

From ancient cultures to modern, chocolate wends its way through our history and culture.  It is more than a food; it is a state of mind, a key to a favorite memory.  It’s been a commodity to be bartered, a soldier’s food staple, a beverage served in the royal courts of Europe, and a symbol of romance.  Join us on a journey as we explore the world of chocolate through a selection of the Library’s online images, recipe collections, travelogues, and personal stories.

 

Touchstones With Personal Memories

Helm Cocoa, Privat Antoine Théodore Livemont, 1899, LC-DIG-ppmsca-10088, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.10088

 

Recipes from Immigration, Features, Learning Page:

Buckeyes - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=53

Chocolate Chip Cookies - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=364

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=60

Chocolate Éclair Cake - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=267

Chocolate Éclair Torte - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=138

Coffee Ice Cream Decadence - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=277

Kevin’s Chocolate Pecan Tart - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=526

Red German Chocolate Cake - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=525

S’more Toast - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=165

Special K Bars - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=52

White Chocolate Birthday Cake - http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/ckbk/recipe.php?rid=524

 

Drinking Hot Chocolate

Jazlyn Langford, Letters About Literature, 2003 Winner, Center for the Book - http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/LAL2003-levelthree.one.html

 

To-day's events. A publication diffusing important information in the interest of the World's fair visitors, concessionaires and exhibitors. Chicago, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 1893.  World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Ill., Chicago, 1893, An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, American Memory - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.0180370d

 

Letter No. IX, January 13th, 1853, From East Prussia to the Golden Gate, by Frank Lecouvreur; letters and diary of the California pioneer, edited in memory of her noble husband, by Mrs. Josephine Rosana Lecouvreur; translated and compiled by Julius C. Behnke, California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900, American Memory, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbkbib:@field(NUMBER+@od1(calbk+179))

 

American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lhtnhtml/lhtnhome.html

Search on chocolate in the full text to find references to boiling chocolate, drinking at meals, etc. such as:

The journals of Washington Irving (hitherto unpublished) ed. by William P. Trent and George S. Hellman.

·        Volume 2, Travels in Spain [1826] - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtn:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbtn1680cdiv6))

·        Volume 3, France, August to October, 1824.  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtn:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbtn1680bdiv5))

 

The Diaries of George Washington. Vol. 3., July 14, 1774, The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(wd0353))

 

The Tontine Coffee House, Wall & Water Streets, about 1797, Walter Monteith Aikman, LC-USZ62-98020, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b44109

 

Men & women drinking chocolate in a Liepzig coffehouse. 17--, LC-USZ62-78231, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b25335

 

Reading Pre-Colombian Artifacts:  Introduction, The Cultures and History of the Americas, Exhibitions, http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/earlyamericas/readingartifacts/html/

·        Artifact Gallery - http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/earlyamericas/readingartifacts/html/gallery/index.html

 

The Cultures and History of the Americas, Exhibitions, http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/kislak/kislak-home.html

·        The Cultures and History of the Americas:  Online Exhibition, Exhibitions, http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/kislak/kislak-exhibit.html

 

Colonial America

South-Carolina price-current. Charles-Town, the 30th day of July 1774. Printed for Crouch & Gray, New England factors.  An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, American Memory - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.17200300

 

Journals of the Continental Congress, Wednesday, Friday June, 12, 1778, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc01137))

 

Journals of the Continental Congress, Wednesday, April 14, 1779, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc01394))

 

Order of procession, in honor of the constitution of the United States. At eight o'clock on Wednesday morning the 23rd of July, 10 guns will fire, when the procession will parade and proceed by the following route, viz: Down Broadway to Great-Dock street, thence through Hanover-Square, Queen, Chatham Division, and Arundel-Streets; and from then through Bullock-Streets to Bayard's House. [New York, 1788].  An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, American Memory - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.1110150a

 

Gold Rush

California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbhome.html

Search on chocolate in the full text to find references to the sale, barter, and use of chocolate by forty-niners, such as:

One man's gold; the letters & journal of a forty-niner, Enos Christman, compiled & edited by Florence Morrow Christman.  Monday, March 4, 1850, California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk070div69))

 

Civil War

John H. Robertson, American Life Histories, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/wpa:@field(DOCID+@lit(wpa333021409))

 

Medicinal Properties

Rules of diet for patients under homeopathic treatment ... Isaac Colby, M. D. Salem Observer Press [n. d.], An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, American Memory - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.08100400

 

Hovey's Cocoa Glycerine for preserving & dressing the hair, LC-USZC4-644, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b52133

 

Industry

Manufacture of chocolate, Dorchester Mills, LC-DIG-npcc-20364, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.20364

 

Scene in chocolate factory, LC-DIG-npcc-20363, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.20363

 

Family Groceries. Your attention is most respectfully invited to my stock of groceries now in store ... Wm. W. Birth, Washington, D.C. July 2d, 1847.  An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, American Memory - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.19801900

 

Advertising

Eating chocolate, LC-USZ62-92565, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog -  http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b38859

 

Hershey’s Sweet Milk Chocolate, n.d., Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/eaa:@field(DOCID+@lit(A0335))

 

Cookbooks (82), Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920, American Memory
Chocolate recipes appear in many of these.  See the book’s Table of Contents for details.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/eaa:@FIELD(SUBJ+@od1(+cookbooks+))

 

 

World Wars I and II

Nous saurons nous en priver (We will know how to sacrifice), 1918, French World War I Posters, LC-USZC2-4059, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f04059

 

The Stars and Stripes:  The American Soldiers’ Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919, American Memory- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/sashome.html

Search on chocolate to find articles describing chocolate rations for soldiers in France.

 

New York Times, August 25th 1918, Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/np_item.pl?collection=sgproto&agg=sgpnyt&iss=19180825&page=8

 

Chicago, Illinois. Subsistence research laboratory of the U.S. Army quartermaster depot. Five-in-one ration. This ration so designed so that five servicemen starting on a mission can throw the ration in the back of a jeep and proceed with assurance that they will have three square meals. Besides the canned food showing, there are numerous other items in the large container, such as coffee, instant rice, tea, lemon juice powder, hard candy, grape juice powder, cocoa with sugar and biscuit squares, March 1943, America From the Great Depression to World War II, American Memory - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d17437

 

Packages for prisoners of war and internees. Americans taken prisoners of war or interned by Germany and Italy regularly receive standard American Red Cross food packages, shown here stacked like bricks in the International Red Cross warehouse at Geneva, Switzerland. U.S. prisoners of war receive one package a week as soon as the Red Cross is notified of their capture and location. Internees receive one package every two weeks. As of December 9, 1942, Germany and Italy had reported 243 American prisoners of war and 1512 interned civilians. Each package weighs eleven pounds and contains evaporated milk, buscuits, cheese, cocoa, sardines, pork, beef, chocolate bars, sugar, coffee, powered orange concentrate, prunes, cigarettes and smoking tobacco. Between 1940-46, America From the Great Depression to World War II, American Memory - http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b09540

 

The World of Chocolate

Home Economics Subject Guides, Science and Technology Division, http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/subjectguides/home-ecsg.html

Find guides and webcasts on various food topics such as: