The Girl Guides were founded in Britain in 1909, with the first Canadian unit formed in St. Catharines, Ontario, in 1910. By 1912, there were units in every province (Girl Guides, “History”). The Wascana Girl Guides were based out of Regina, the…
Capitalizing on the casserole craze of the 1940s and '50s, this publication from the Vancouver Province was one of a series of eight booklets, perhaps available by order to the newspaper’s readers. Allowing the cook to “stretch” a…
Featuring a plethora of brand-name foods, this cookbook is a snapshot of 1936 cookery. Recipes call for Eagle Brand or Borden’s condensed milk, Knox gelatin, Keen’s mustard, Sunkist oranges, Heinz ketchup and other sauces, Swans Down…
This volume demonstrates how cookbooks can provide insights into other cultural circumstances. In this case, the full-page advertisement for the telephone demonstrates the early incentives behind rural telephone installation; another advertisement…
The UFWA was created in 1915 as a women’s parallel to the United Farmers of Alberta. Nanci Langford’s Politics, Pitchforks and Pickle Jars notes that the first UFWA cookbook was produced in 1928 from recipes donated by members from across the…
This cookbook, published in four editions by the St. Josaphat’s Ladies’ Auxiliary, offers a glimpse into Edmonton’s Ukrainian community through the 1940s and early '50s (this edition, the third, is probably from 1954). It includes…
Scandinavians settled across the Prairies. The Vasa Order, named after the first king of modern Sweden, formed in the late 1890s in Connecticut with the goal of preserving Swedish culture; eventually the organization expanded its scope to include…
This sixteen-page cookbook comes from Mayfair United Church in Saskatoon, which still exists today. It is clearly compiled by a predominantly English community: recipe donors have names such as Goodwin, Fraser, and Swift, and a number of the recipes…
Another example of a wartime cookbook, Cook to Win was produced by the Good Cheer Club of Wesley United Church in Calgary. The cover shows a housewife focusing on key cooking goals, not unlike a military strategist. The foreword appeals to Prairie…
While food was always a key driver of Western Canada’s economy, the war meant that Prairie production had global consequences. This brochure, published by the North-West Line Elevators Association, encourages farmers to tailor their production to…