United States Vegan and Vegetarian History - Resources
Books
The Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism, by Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz, editor, 2010
Sins of the Flesh: A History of Ethical Vegetarian Thought, by Rod Preece, 2008
Vegetarians and Vegans in America Today, by Karen Iacobbo and Michael Iacobbo, 2006
Vegetarian America, A History, by Karen and Michael Iacobbo, 2004
The Vegetable Passion: A History of the Vegetarian State of Mind, by Janet Barkas, 1975
Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages, by William A. Alcott, 1838 https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-9805086-bk
Digital Resources
Southern Adventist University's McKee Library's 19th century vegetarian literature guide: https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/foodiesguide/?utm_source=knowledge.e.southern.edu/foodiesguide-1890/2&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages
Willard Library Historical Image collection, Battle Creek, Michigan, includes many images of early vegetarian-tied enterprises: https://dspace.willardlibrary.org/xmlui/handle/123456789/1
American Vegetarian and Health Journal, 1850-1854 editions, HathiTrust: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000503187
Vegetarian history resources, International Vegetarian Union: https://ivu.org/history-legacy-pages.html
Vegetarian/Vegan History, The Vegetarian Resource Group, https://www.vrg.org/history/
Regional U.S. Vegetarian History
Maine Vegetarian History Project, by Avery Yale Kamila, 2023: Maine Vegetarian History Project (usc.edu)
Vegetarian history of Illinois, Mapping Illinois' Role in U.S. Vegetarian History, 2021, The Vegan Museum: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cac0c3a50a4942988c2bde194693c3f5
Vegetarian history of Los Angeles, California, by Eric Brightwell, 2018: https://ericbrightwell.com/2018/11/07/vegetarian-and-vegan-los-angeles/
Vegetarian history of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, by Vance Lehmkuhl, 2016: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/vegetarianism-and-veganism/
Historical Cooking Resources
Science in the Kitchen, by Ella Ervilla Kellogg, 1893, https://d.lib.msu.edu/fa/65#page/8/mode/2up
Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages, by William A. Alcott, 1851, containing "A System of Vegetable Cookery," which does not appear in the 1838 original edition. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011213805
Exhibitions
Food: Transforming The American Table
A permanent exhibition on view at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History chronicling American food from 1950 to the present, opened in 2012, https://americanhistory.si.edu/food
Elements of vegetarian history are included in the sections on:
Resetting the Table, https://americanhistory.si.edu/food/resetting-table
Countercultures, https://americanhistory.si.edu/food/resetting-table/countercultures
Reforming Restaurants, https://americanhistory.si.edu/food/resetting-table/reforming-restaurants
Food for People, https://americanhistory.si.edu/food/resetting-table/food-people
Cereal History Exhibit, a permanent exhibition on view at the Battle Creek Welcome Center, Battle Creek, Michigan, https://www.battlecreekvisitors.org/member-detail/cereal-history-exhibit/
Vegan Food: Just a Few Vegan Options
A temporary exhibition of vegan books and contemporary vegan food packaging at Tran Library, Pacific University, October 15, 2021 to February 11, 2022: Pacific University Vegan Exhibition – The Pacific Index (pacindex.com)
Eat Your Vegetables: Five centuries of vegetarianism and the printed word
A temporary exhibition at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, July 21 to September 10, 2016, highlighting the collection of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to the history of vegetarianism in the William Dailey Collection, along with vegetarian cookbooks selected from the Dr. and Mrs. John Talbot Gernon Cookbook Collection, https://libraries.indiana.edu/eat-your-vegetables-five-centuries-vegetarianism-and-printed-word
Compiled by food writer Avery Yale Kamila