On Women in Book History
One of my observations when compiling the books for my Jollof of Theseus project was just how many books were written by women, both British and Nigerian. And so, as I pieced things together, I made notes that I wanted to return to around the role of women in learning, teaching, documenting, preserving, and sharing (written) food culture. Yes, there’s a caveat - while I have the very best intentions, my research may not be complete and so this is subject to my current knowledge.
As I’ve read more about bibliography, and began to look at the different kinds as well as the different focus areas, I’ve been reading more about Women in Book History, and was thrilled to come across the website, Women in Book History.
For the first step of my Nigerian Food Bibliography project, I am working towards an annotated bibliography, similar to the one I created as part of a graduate diploma course I took during my Museum and Cultural Management Studies. I called it my Gallery of Curiosities, after the early Cabinet of Curiosities museums. I really enjoyed the process of selecting references I found important for different courses, and understanding how they aligned with my thoughts and approaches to a variety of subject matter. I also loved using Airtable. The ability to turn a spreadsheet into a gallery, and to accommodate both images and weblinks is gold.
As I continue on this journey, my goals are to
complete phase 1 of a Bibliography of Nigerian food/cookbooks, from 1900 to date. I might do a call to see if anyone has additional references that I haven’t listed, or that aren’t captured in WorldCat.
Read more about enumerative bibliography beginning with Building the Women in Book History Bibliography, or Digital Enumerative Bibliography as Preservation of Feminist Labor.
Mull on these words “This platform promotes ongoing work in women’s book history by making scholarship and resources on women's writing and labor visible. Collecting data, making this work “count” by writing it into the historical record, is a feminist act that preserves the past while shaping the future.” as I frame the importance of what I’m learning about the women who preserved Nigeria’s culinary history.
