Collecting Culinaria (2024-25)
Collecting Culinaria: Cookbooks and Domestic Manuals Mainly from the Linda Miron Distad Collection
Curators: Caroline Lieffers and Merrill Distad
September 2024 to March 2025
Back by popular demand, this visually compelling exhibition of books and ephemera relating to the preparation and enjoyment of food over several centuries was a tribute to a generous donor and a remarkable woman. From national and regional cookbooks to manuscript and corporate cookbooks, this exhibition featured highlights from the collection of librarian-researcher-editor-chef Linda Miron Distad (1944–2012) who had a special ability to “combine, separate, enhance, reduce, clarify, liaise,” and thereby to make magic. Check out a related digital exhibition: Culinaria: A Taste of Food History on the Prairies. Group exhibition visits were hosted on Monday afternoons by Merrill Distad, Jeff Papineau, and Eleanor Young. The book/catalogue that accompanied this exhibition is available through U of A Library (TX 6 A33 C22 2013) and it may be purchased in person in the Peel library for $25 (cash only, no dealers) or through University of Alberta Press or Indigo.
