American History through its Recipes: The Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive

Janice Longone has been credited with creating the field of American Culinary History.  Janice, along with her husband Dan Longone, have created The Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive at the Clements and the Longone Center for American Culinary Research, “a premier collection for the study of American Culinary History.”  We have interviewed Janice Longone on her life and the many years of work and dedication that were put into the creation of the Archive.

Could you tell us about the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive and the inspiration behind this important undertaking?

I would like to begin by thanking you for the opportunity to share information about the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive (JBLCA) and the Longone Center at the University of Michigan’s Clements Library in Ann Arbor.  I would strongly recommend that those interested in knowing more should browse our website: www.clements.umich.edu (then click on JBLCA)

I have been asked to tell you briefly about myself.  I was born in Boston.  My Mother tells me I was born reading a book!  Probably NOT true – but my whole life has been “bookish.”  My Mother tells me that when I was 5 years old, I asked for my own Library Card.  At that time, to get your own library card in Boston, you had to be able to cross the street by yourself, and since, although I could read, I couldn’t yet cross the street by myself, I was refused.  Evidently, bratty as I was, I created such a scene that I got my Library card and the story appeared in a Boston newspaper!  I do not know if that is a true story, but my Mother told it to me many times – and I have lived my life believing it.

The Sunday between our undergraduate graduations in June, almost 56 years ago, I married the love of my life, whom I had known since childhood, Dan Longone, and we went on to graduate school together at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.  Dan worked toward his PhD in Organic Chemistry and I worked fulltime in the Dept. of Rural Sociology and worked toward a degree in Chinese History.   Following a postdoctoral year at the University of Illinois in Champain-Urbana, we came to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, where Dan is now an Emeritus Professor.  The years in Ann Arbor have been good and full ones for us, as have been the various sabbaticals, Fulbrights, lectures, etc. abroad, in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Mexico, Great Britain, and other locales.

Engaging fully in the life of the University, the City, the County, the State, and the Country gave us ample opportunity to meet and know people and to learn and expand our horizons.  I am most proud of my years spent in politics, ending with my position as District Representative for a United States Congressman - a responsible and exciting challenge.  When that stage of my life ended, I turned once again to books - and to matters culinary.  I was involved with the opening of Kitchen Port, one of America’s early cooking utensils shops.  Dan and I taught classes on wine and food, travel, gastronomy and culinary history.  And the classes led to the founding of The Wine and Food Library in 1972.  It is now, I believe, the oldest antiquarian culinary bookshop in America.  They tell me I am the oldest antiquarian culinary book dealer in the world!!  Whether that is true, a compliment or an insult, I am not certain.

The bookshop, the books, the clients – was pure joy.  It was a chance to learn and work with history.

One of the great pleasures for me was working with Shirley Smith at WUOM-NPR, where we created what likely was the earliest serious program in America on food history: “Adventures in Gastronomy,” which ran weekly for several years.  You can now hear some of those tapes on the Clements website.

This led to the creation of the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor, of which I am the proud Founder and Honorary Chair. It also led to travels in all parts of America, seeking books, visiting the books at the homes of clients of the bookshop, and being asked to lecture and consult all over the world.