Issue of Early Modern Studies Journal marking EMROC’s tenth birthday, November 2022

We are pleased to announce that Early Modern Studies Journal has publishing a special issue entitled “Celebrating Ten Years of the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective.” The issue commemorates EMROC’s first decade of bringing together scholars, students, and the general public in the preservation, transcription and analysis of recipes written in English from circa 1550-1800.

Conference: Popular Culture and the Deep Past at The Ohio State University, February 2022

Demonstration: “‘[S]it and sit and eat and eat’: An Early Modern Menu at the the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference,” October 2021

Steering Committee member Hillary Nunn and EMROC member Marissa Nicosia of Pennsylvania State University Abington curated an early modern lunch for the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference. Students from Owens Community College prepared recipes from EMROC-transcribed manuscripts from Lady Ann Fanshawe and Jane Dawson, among others. Click here for a look at the menu and event background.

Essay: Smelling Contagion: The Sensory Experience of Plague in Seventeenth-Century London and the Covid-19 Pandemic, Fall 2021

This paper captures three scholars’ reflections on sensory experiences during the Covid-19 lockdowns in the US and UK, particularly around smell, or its absence. It calls upon early modern recipes for plague treatments in building its argument. Holly Dugan (The George Washington University), EMROC member Marissa Nicosia of The Pennsylvania State University – Abington College, and Steering Committee member Lisa W. Smith, University of Essex, cowrote this thoughtful, student-friendly piece.

Issue of Early Modern Studies Journal devoted to Mary Baumfylde’s book, February 2021

Volume 7 of Early Modern Literary Studies, edited by Amy L. Tigner and Hillary Nunn, features essays devoted to Folger V.a. 456, a recipe manuscript linked to Mary Baumfylde. The collection stemmed from a Shakespeare Association of America workshop and features essays from Keri Sanburn Behre, Keith Botelho, Gaywyn E. Moore and Brian J. Harries, Marissa Nicosia, Peter Parolin, Danielle Rosvalley, Margaret Simon, and Nancy Simpson-Younger.

Conference: Food and the Book at the Newberry Library, October 2020

Several EMROC members were part of the Newberry Library’s Food and the Book conference, held online and available via the Newberry’s YouTube channel. EMROC member David Goldstien was among the conference’s organizers, and members Marissa Nicosia, Hillary Nunn, and Rob Wakeman presented.

Conference: Renaissance Society of America, Toronto, March 2019

EMROC Steering Committee Members Elaine Leong, Hillary Nunn, and Maggie Simon presented on their work with recipes on two different panels. “In the Kitchen,” a seminar organized by Nunn and EMROC member Madeline Bassnett, brought together papers on the work behind early modern eating. RSA members can see their work here: http:// https://www.rsa.org/page/2019TorontoSeminarPapers

Student Recognition: Kuhr Earns SURE Funding, May 2018
Tori Kuhr, a student of Rob Wakeman, participated in Mount Saint Mary’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program, where she received financial support for her research early modern theories of purgation. Her research resulted in a paper, entitled “Dr. Walter Harris’s Methods of Treating Deathly Ill Children Recorded in Folger MS W.a.87,” involved the transcription of over 60 early modern recipe manuscript pages.

Publication: Margaret Boyle on Teaching and the Granville Manuscript, May 2018
In “How To Cook and Cure: Early Modern Recetas,” Margaret Boyle outlines her use of the Granville manuscript in an undergraduate class to highlight women’s roles in health and healing. See her work on the Nursing Clio site, here.

Student Recognition: PSU-Abington’s “What’s in a Recipe?” Project Garners Awards, April 2018
With Marissa Nicosia advising, four PSU-Abington undergraduates earned the Blue Ribbon for their poster presentation, “What’s in a Recipe?” at the 2018 ACURA Awards. A month later, the students behind the project — Rachael Ngandwe, Amber Rader, Eric Seamans, and Rachael Shulman — earned the PSU University Libraries Information Literacy Award for their work. Eric Seamans blogged about the project here.

Conference: Modern Language Association, New York, January 2018
Hillary Nunn and Melissa Schultheis examined the networks that Lady Anne Fanshawe’s recipe book preserves as well as builds, concentrating on both family members and ingredient. Their work kicked off a panel entitled “Net Work: Then and Now,” arranged by Christopher Warren and sponsored by the LLC 17th-Century English.

Media: Shakespeare and Beyond on EMROC Holiday Recipes, December 2017
Sarah Powell describes holiday-worthy recipes uncovered during EMROC’s 2017 Transcribathon, at https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2017/12/12/mince-pies-mirth-recipes-17th-century/?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ShakespearePlus12Dec2017&utm_content=version_A&promo=5650

Third Annual Transcribathon, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, November 2017
The EMROC Steering Committee hosted a day-long virtual transcription marathon devoted to recipe books complied by Margaret Baker, Susannah Packe, and Leticia Cromwell. Experience the day-long event through a Twitter synopsis, at https://storify.com/define_stranger/emroctranscribes-transcribathon-autumn-2017?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email

Conference: Early Modern Manuscripts Online: New Directions in Teaching and Research, May 2017
Elaine Leong, Jennifer Munroe, and Hillary Nunn presented at this Folger-sponsored conference devoted to exploring the influence of digital scholarship on manuscript studies as well as the ways in which our understanding of the early modern humanities is changing as a result.

Workshop: Making Manuscripts Digital, University of Guelph, May 2017
During the four day DH@Guelph Summer Workshops, Hillary Nunn and Amy Tigner offered an introduction to manuscript recipe books and led participants in transcribing and encoding an eighteenth-century recipe collection from the University of Guelph’s Una Abrahamson Canadian Cookery Collection.

Conference: Shakespeare Association of America, Atlanta, April 2017
Hillary Nunn and Amy Tigner represented EMROC at the conference’s Digital Exhibits, and EMROC members convened a vetting marathon before the conference’s official start.

Conference: Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, April 2017
In “The Phenomenology of Digital Transcription,” EMROC Member Margaret Simon reflected on pedagogical uses of EMROC texts and Dromio in the classroom. Hillary Nunn’s paper, “Considering Water in Five Recipe Manuscripts,” made use of the new search capabilities that EMROC transcriptions to examine the peculiarities associated with “plain” water in the early modern household. EMROC member Member Marissa Nicosia (Penn State Abington) and Transcriber Katie Walker (University of North Carolina) presented on their work with early modern recipes as well.

Phyllis Rackin Lecture, University of Pennsylvania
Rebecca Laroche gave a talk, “Tending the Fire: Shakespeare, Women, and Ecofeminism,” part of which expanded on research on language around fires, made possible through the transcribathon earlier in the month, November 30, 2016.

Second Annual Transcribathon, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, November 2016
The EMROC Steering Committee hosted a day-long transcription marathon devoted to Lady Grace Castleton’s recipe book.

Conference: Manuscript Cookbooks, Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University, May 2016
Jennifer Munroe and Hillary Nunn, along with Heather Wolfe of the Folger Shakespeare Library, present on the topic, Digital Humanities: The Dromio Project and EMROC. Video available at https://vimeopro.com/nyutv/fales-food/video/182614143

Conference: Renaissance Society of America, Boston, April 2016
EMROC participated in a roundtable showcasing the collaborations and conversations that comprise the ecosystem of the Folger Library’s recent digital initiatives. Panelists discussed how the conversations that emerge around early modern digital work foster advanced research goals and shape the kinds of questions that are asked. Issues discussed included shared infrastructure and its development, as well as sustainability. Representatives from JSTOR/Ithaka, Digital Renaissance Editions, the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective, and others presented.

Conference: Shakespeare Association of America, New Orleans, March 2016
Hillary Nunn and Jennifer Munroe talked with conference-goers about the project’s principles and pedagogical uses.

Conference: Modern Language Association, Austin Texas, January 2016
EMROC was part of a a roundtable discussion on “The Myth of Post-canonicity: Early Modern Women Writers.” Rebecca Laroche talked about the implications of the “digital turn” and the example of EMROC.

Media: The BBC films at our October 2015 Transcribathon
As transcribers around the world made their way through the Winche manuscript, the BBC filed this report on how the recipes work in today’s kitchens: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35011121

Conference: Attending to Early Modern Women, June 2015
Rebecca Laroche and Jen Munroe led a workshop entitled “Teaching Early Modern Recipes in the Digital Age.” For a detailed description of the seminar, see http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/conferences/atw2015/pdf/30.Early-Modern-Recipes.pdf. For the full program, click here: http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/conferences/atw2015/program.cfm

Conference: Women’s History in the Digital World, May 2015
Rebecca Laroche and Hillary Nunn highlighted EMROC’s crowdsourcing efforts at Bryn Mawr in May of 2015. For more on their papers, click here: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/do/search/?q=laroche&start=0&context=3363912

Rebecca Laroche, “Crowdsourcing and Pedagogy”

Hillary Nunn, “Using the Methods of our Manuscripts: Shaping the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective”

Lecture: 2015 George Washington University, January 2015.
Rebecca Laroche was invited to present on the Collective’s mission: “What Recipes Can Tell Us: Collaboration, Close Reading, and Macro-Analysis.”

Conference: Pride and Prejudices: Women’s Writing of the Long Eighteenth Century, July 2013
At the Chawton House Library, Rebecca Laroche presented “Early Modern Recipes Online Collective (EMROC)” as part of a panel entitled New Directions in Digital Humanities I: Creators and Users.

Exhibit: Beyond Home Remedy: Women, Medicine, and Science, January-May 2011
This exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library, curated by Rebecca Laroche and Georgianna Ziegler, explored women’s roles in early modern medicine through the records they left in recipe books, their ownership marks in books by male authorities, and other evidences of their labors as caregivers and healers. For more details, click here.