Abby Fisher’s Fried Chicken (1881)

Abby Fisher’s Fried Chicken (1881)

Fisher’s What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Etc.  (1881) Is the second oldest African-American cookbook.  When she does relate food to a particular meal, it’s Breakfast cream cake or Waffles for breakfast.  She does not mention a...
Hiroshige’s Picnic at Gotenyama  (1833)

Hiroshige’s Picnic at Gotenyama (1833)

Hiroshige aims to depict activity relevant to the moment in a specific landscape. In this respect, his scenes in Japan correlate with J.M.W. Turner’s picturesque landscapes of the United Kingdom. While picnicking under the blooming cherry trees at Gotenyama, too...
“Thumbers” or Bookmaker’s Sandwiches

“Thumbers” or Bookmaker’s Sandwiches

“Thumbers” are thick beef, pork, or mutton sandwiches that were popular crowd food at the Newmarket racetrack. The name alludes to the small-sized sandwiches held between the thumb and forefinger. Except for gastronome Edward Spencer. in his Cakes &...
Harold Frederic’s The Damnation of Theron Ware  (1896)

Harold Frederic’s The Damnation of Theron Ware (1896)

Frederic’s The Damnation of Theron Ware, or Illumination, is a satire of American Methodism. The narrative explores the mid-life crisis of Theron Ware, a married Methodist Episcopal pastor who falls for Celia Madden, an Irish Catholic, in a small town in New...
Abby Fisher’s Fried Chicken (1881)

Abby Fisher’s Fried Chicken (1881)

The second oldest African American cookbook is Fisher’s What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Etc. She does not mention picnics in her text,  but fried chicken is a picnic staple. Fried Chicken: Cut the chicken up, separating every...
James  [Jacques] Tissot’s Picnic on the Grass (1881/82)

James [Jacques] Tissot’s Picnic on the Grass (1881/82)

Elizabeth Newton and her children enjoy a birthday party in Tissot’s garden in St. John Wood, London. The partygoers sit on cushions beside a picnic cloth laden with food and drinks prominently placed in the immediate foreground. The children are of secondary...
Anthony Trollope’s Phineas Redux (1874)

Anthony Trollope’s Phineas Redux (1874)

Trollope’s Phineas Redux is the fourth book in the Phineas Finn Series. It was among his most popular novels. Numerous hunt scenes and references suggest Finn’s plight evading his enemies. A halt during a fox hunt provides the opportunity for a simple picnic lunch in...