International Cook Book of The Elementary Principals' Club of Los Angeles, Cal.

The Elementary Principals’ Club of Los Angeles was founded in 1908. Open to men and women elementary school principals (hence the name), the Club’s first president was School Superintendent Frank Bouelie.

 

In 1928, the Club opened an official Clubhouse at the corner of Ninth and Alvarado, which included space for social events as well as 20 rooms open to rent by members and retired principals, and soon grew to be 450 members.

 

At the time of this cookbook’s publication, principal Nora Sterry (pictured) was then the Club’s president and likely organizer of these recipes, as she applied for the copyright in her name. Sterry was born in Kansas but grew up in LA and attended the Marlborough SChool for Girls and then the State Normal School. She also received bachelors and masters degrees from USC.

 

Sterry began teaching in 1903 and became principal of the Macy Street School, near the heart of old Chinatown (now Union Station), in 1913. The school served a largely poor, immigrant population and as principal Sperry instituted a school breakfast and lunch program. During WWI,  Sterry became involved in the Red Cross and when a Black Death outbreak forced the neighborhood containing the school to quarantine in 1924, Sperry insisted on being let back in, to be closer to her students. Later in her career Sperry was appointed to the County Board of Education - making the board majority women for the first time. The Macy School eventually moved to Sawtelle in West LA, and now bears Sterry’s name. 

 

Interestingly,  Citizens Print Shop, which printed this book, also printed Bertha Haffner-Ginger’s California Mexican Spanish Cooking in 1914, which is often credited for containing the first ever, english-language recipe and photo of tacos in the United States.  

 

Similarly, this cookbook, as hinted by its name, contains many recipes that would have been uncommon in English language cookbooks of the time. However, the context is not not without exotification. A note at the opening of the book states: 

 

“These recipies have been secured by principals of the Los Angeles schools from the people of various foreign groups living within their respective districts. Of the many collected only those have been chosen for publication which are suited to American tastes and the materials for which are available in our local shops. They have been tested by responsible people. It is with the hope that the teachers and their friends will enjoy the novelty of these strange dishes and will thereby in some small measure gain in sympathetic understanding of our foreign people that the Principals’ Club presents this book.”

 

Despite this somewhat condescending introductions, the recipes include represent an impressive range of nationalities: “Creole, German, Japanese, Jewish, Lithuanian, Peruvian, Russian, Ukranian, White Russian, Chinese, Columbian, Hawain, Polish, Spanish, Armenian, Bulgarian, Italian, Mexican, Zanzibar, Chilean, Circassian, Czechoslovakian, Danish,  East Indian, French, Japanese, Nicaraguan,  Siberian, Swedish, Syrian, Turkish, Ugandan, Viennese, Norwegian, Latvian, Swiss, Tartar (Crimea), Belgian, and Persian.”

 

In 1939, the California Congress of Parents and Teachers 10th District, which also has a cookbook in this archive, granted a special seat reserved for an Elementary Principals’ Club member. Today, the Principal’s Club no longer seems to exist, but if you know more information on this organization, please reach out via the Contact page. 

 

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Image of Nora Sterry via the Nora Sterry school

 

PRIMARY SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONS

California Congress of Parents and Teachers, Tested Recipes

Drippings from the Chalk Board

Favorite Recipes of our Eagle Rock Kids

Fidelia Cook Book 

Horn of Plenty 

International Cook Book of The Elementary Principals' Club of Los Angeles, Cal.

Kitchen Kapers: A West Covina Community Cook Book 

Kitchen Magic From Cowan Cooks

Local Flavors Malibu - California 

Malibu Cooks! 

Out Of Our Kitchens

Revered Recipes

A Taste For All Seasons Cookbook: In Celebration Of African American Heritage

This Bird Can Cook! 

What's Cooking Mom?

 

 

Each book is being digitized slowly by hand. If you have particular interest in a certain cookbook, please reach out via the Contact Page, so it can be given priority.