Celebrating 47,000 Titles

December 20, 2023

This post celebrates the 47,000th unique title Distributed Proofreaders has posted to Project Gutenberg: the Betty Crocker Picture Cooky Book. Congratulations and thanks to all the Distributed Proofreaders and Project Gutenberg volunteers who worked on it!

Everybody loves cookies! So proclaims the fictional Betty Crocker in the introduction to the seminal 1948 booklet on baking them, the Betty Crocker Picture Cooky Book. Thanks to the volunteers at Distributed Proofreaders – especially the Cookbook Lovers team – you can re-create the delicious goodies that post-World War II American housewives made for the growing Baby Boom generation.

This early version of the Betty Crocker Picture Cooky Book is only a 46-page booklet, but it crams in “128 of the most popular tested recipes from her collection … with 70 ‘how-to-do’ tips, 50 success pointers and 175 illustrations.” All that for just 25 cents, if you sent it to Betty at General Mills, the Minnesota food conglomerate behind the icon. Later editions in full-size book form – particularly the classic 1963 edition – were greatly expanded to include hundreds of recipes. And, of course, some recipes were modernized based on changing tastes and eating habits. But the goal remained the same: to make it easy for busy homemakers to bring the comforting, nostalgic aromas and flavors of cookies to their families.

Snickerdoodles baked by Lisa Corcoran

This milestone is particularly meaningful because the booklet was contributed by a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer, Lisa Corcoran (Leebot). It belonged to her mother, and Lisa still bakes from it. She recalls:

“My mom collected lots of these promotional cookbooklets through the years, as well as recipes from various TV and cooking shows. She cooked and baked from scratch. My sister and I loved coming home from school to a batch of chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies, or Snickerdoodles (the recipe in the photo). At Christmas she made many types of cookies, many of which she’d assemble into gift boxes for neighbors and friends. The Berliner Kranser (little wreaths) recipe remains a favorite.”

Lisa prefers to substitute real butter for shortening in these recipes. She advises, “If you do substitute butter, make a couple of test cookies first as you may need to adjust the ratio of flour. If they spread out and are too buttery, work more flour into the dough until you get the right consistency.”

Distributed Proofreaders is proud to celebrate its 47,000th title with this very special cookbook. Many thanks to everyone who made it possible. And Happy Holidays to all!

This post was contributed by Linda Cantoni, a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer, with contributions from Lisa Corcoran (Leebot), leader of the Distributed Proofreaders Cookbook Lovers team.

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The Box of Whistles

December 1, 2023

Among the many delights of being a volunteer for Distributed Proofreaders is having the privilege of working on some very beautiful and unusual old books. One such book is The Box of Whistles (1877), a short but fascinating study of the most exquisite pipe organ cases in Europe.

Author John Norbury, who did not actually play the organ but had long been fascinated by it, explains the title: “The Box of Whistles! what a quaint title! Yes, but a good one, I think, for this book, as the old organ of Father Smith’s in St. Paul’s, ‘The Box of Whistles,’ as Sir Christopher Wren contemptuously called it, was the first organ I ever saw, and which gave me my bent in the liking of things pertaining to the organ.” A color lithograph of Norbury’s own sketch of the original Smith organ in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London (now the much-renovated Grand Organ), is the frontispiece to the book.

The first part of The Box of Whistles provides an overview of the different types of organ cases. Norbury then gives his opinion on what constitutes a good organ case, fearing that he “may a little shock some persons with my views,” perhaps because he did not believe that the organ case should necessarily match the church’s architectural period, as long as it is of high quality. He touches on the number and arrangement of pipes and the use of separate choir cases. And he expresses definite opinions on how organ lofts should be arranged and what accessories they should have: “A looking-glass, which should be a part of the organ, and not a shaving-glass hung up with string and nails, should be fixed so that the player can see down the church; and something better than fastening with a pin to the side of the desk a shabby bit of paper with the list of music, &c., might be arranged.”

Then comes the true delight of The Box of Whistles: Norbury’s notes on various organ cases in England and on the Continent, with 20 color illustrations from his sketches. He reserves the highest praise for the organ case at St. Janskirk (St. John’s Cathedral) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, which he describes as “perhaps the finest in Europe.” It is indeed impressive – a monumental 17th-Century case in rich, dark wood, with elaborate carvings and a clock at its summit.

The Box of Whistles is a delightful tour of lesser-known but truly lovely works of art. Thanks to the volunteers at Distributed Proofreaders and Project Gutenberg, you can join that tour for free, anywhere, any time.

This post was contributed by Linda Cantoni, a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer.

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