Cabinet Card Photograph

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Stein Photographer, 1900. LINCOLN, Mary Johnson. Cabinet Card Photograph. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Stein Photographer n.d.c.a. 1900.

Black-and white cabinet card photograph of Mary Johnson Lincoln. (photo: 5 3/8 x 4 inches; 146 x 103 mm; card: 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches; 166 x 107 mm). Inscribed on the verso by Lincoln "With the Compliments of Mary J. Lincoln" and in an anonymous hand "Author of the Boston Cook Book. Head of Boston Cooking School." Recto is a three-quarter profile of Lincoln, affixed to the card with Stein's imprint along bottom margin.

"Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln was a Boston housewife forced to go to work by her husband's health and business setbacks. She was invited to teach at the new Boston Cooking School, which aimed to teach women who wanted to make a living as cooks or women who wanted to tell their servants how to do it. She changed her mind and took the job that launched her career as one of America's most influential cookbook authors ever. She became a celebrity cook who endorsed products, wrote a syndicated column, lectured and founded a baking powder company. Her cookbook, Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book: What To Do and What Not To Do in Cooking paved the way for Fannie Merritt Farmer,s famous cookbook. In 1946, the prestigious Grolier Club put together an exhibition of the 100 most influential books published before 1900. One cookbook was chosen, the one written by Mary J. Lincoln." (New England Historical Society).

HBS 68544.

$4,500.