Difference between revisions of "Aunt Priscilla"

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[[File:Aunt_Priscilla.png|alt=Image and text from 1921.|thumb|Image of Aunt Priscilla with some text from the column in 1921.]]
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#REDIRECT [[About BlackWiki's Mission]]
'''Aunt Priscilla''' was a [[pseudonym]] for the columnist '''Eleanor Purcell''' of ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]''. Purcell used the image of the [[Mammy archetype]] to create a cooking column called ''Aunt Priscilla's Recipes'' which was purported to be written by an [[African Americans|African American]] woman. The daily column was written in  an exaggerated dialect. 
 
 
 
== About ==
 
Aunt Priscilla purportedly was a daily food columnist for ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'' and her column ran from the early 1920s through the 1940s.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/food/article/Book-explores-early-contributions-of-largely-6578186.php|title=Book explores early contributions of largely forgotten black cooks|last=Morago|first=Greg|date=19 October 2015|work=Houston Chronicle|access-date=2017-12-13}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15741587/the_baltimore_sun/|title=Miss Purcell Dies at 83|date=1963-04-21|work=The Baltimore Sun|access-date=2017-12-13|pages=33|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> The columns were written as answers to [[Culinary art|culinary]] requests from readers of the newspaper and described how to cook traditional [[Cuisine of the Southern United States|Southern recipes]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://thejemimacode.com/2010/04/28/aunt-priscilla-newspaper-culinary-expert/comment-page-1/|title=Aunt Priscilla: Newspaper Culinary Columnist?|last=Tipton-Martin|first=Toni|date=28 April 2010|website=The Jemima Code|language=en-US|access-date=2017-12-12}}</ref> The directions for the recipes were written with "inexperienced cooks or brides in mind," according to ''The Baltimore Sun''.<ref name=":3" />
 
 
 
Aunt Priscilla's columns were written in a [[dialect]] similar to [[Uncle Remus]], according to writer, [[Alice Furlaud]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98709442|title=Christmas Delights In Aunt Priscilla's Cookbook|date=25 December 2008|work=NPR.org|access-date=2017-12-12|language=en}}</ref> Lisa Hix described the dialect as an "exaggerated slave dialect."<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/out-of-the-shadow-of-aunt-jemima-the-real-black-chefs-who-taught-americans-to-cook/|title=Out of the Shadow of Aunt Jemima: The Real Black Chefs Who Taught Americans to Cook|last=Hix|first=Lisa|date=22 January 2016|work=Collectors Weekly|access-date=2017-12-12|language=en}}</ref>  Each publication included an illustration of a woman that could be considered "[[Aunt Jemima|Jemima-like]]," according to [[Toni Tipton-Martin.]]<ref name=":2" /> In a 1951 book called ''The Amiable Baltimoreans'', the author, Francis F. Beirne, refers to Aunt Priscilla as if she was a real person.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNso9EnqfxcC&lpg=PA380&dq=%22Aunt%20Priscilla%20in%20the%20Kitchen%22&pg=PA343#v=onepage&q=%22Aunt%20Priscilla%22&f=false|title=The Amiable Baltimoreans|last=Beirne|first=Francis F.|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=1951|isbn=9780801825132|location=Baltimore, Maryland|pages=343|language=en}}</ref>
 
 
 
In fact, the column was written by Eleanor Purcell, who was white.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/howamericaeatsso0000wall|url-access=registration|quote=aunt priscilla recipes.|title=How America Eats: A Social History of U.S. Food and Culture|last=Wallach|first=Jennifer Jensen|date=2013|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=|isbn=9781442208742|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/howamericaeatsso0000wall/page/186 186]|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Purcell's work, according to Tipton-Martin, "was a form of [[Minstrel show|minstrelsy]]," but "it broke with the long tradition of simply taking and publishing [[African Americans|African American]] recipes without giving black cooks credit."<ref name=":1" /> Purcell started working at ''The Baltimore Sun'' in 1916 and ''Aunt Priscilla's Recipes'' was her first feature for the paper.<ref name=":3" />
 
 
 
In 1929, a compilation of recipes mostly featuring holiday themes was published. The book was called ''Aunt Priscilla in the Kitchen: A Collection of Wintertime Recipes.''<ref name=":0" /> The column and the book both "are full of nostalgia for the old slave-owning south," said Furlaud.<ref name=":0" /> ''The Baltimore Sun'' wrote that the cookbook was "well received."<ref name=":3" />
 
 
 
== See also ==
 
* [[Aunt Jemima]]
 
* [[Mammy archetype]]
 
 
 
== Further reading ==
 
*{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/890377551|title=The Jemima Code : Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks|last=Tipton-Martin|first=Toni|isbn=9780292745483|location=Austin|oclc=890377551|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2015|pages=}}
 
 
 
== References ==
 
<!--- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using <ref></ref> tags, these references will then appear here automatically -->
 
{{Reflist}}
 
 
 
== External links ==
 
* [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15741360/ Correct Cookery] (July 22, 1921)
 
* [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15741526/ Sliced Cucumber Pickle] (August 19, 1936)
 
* [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15741486/ Shrimp Creole] (December 7, 1943)
 
* [http://driskellcenter.pastperfectonline.com/container/745F1EEB-F027-4155-96E2-554592800580 Clippings - Aunt Priscilla's Recipes]
 
 
 
<!--- Categories --->
 
[[Category:African-American history in Baltimore]]
 
[[Category:Blackface minstrel characters]]
 
[[Category:History of racism in Maryland]]
 
[[Category:Stereotypes of African Americans]]
 
[[Category:Stereotypes of black women]]
 
[[Category:Stereotypes of working-class women]]
 

Latest revision as of 05:28, 8 October 2020