On December 1, 2022 the Folger’s virtual book club discussed Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. To prepare for the discussion, we pulled together a list of Folger resources related to food and food pathways.
- EXPERIMENT in the kitchen with recipes from the Folger collection
- Early modern recipe combinations to get you through the winter
- Taffety Tarts: How Folger manuscript recipes helped a 17th-century pastry make it into the Oxford English Dictionary
- Mince pies and mirth: Transcribed 17th-century recipes
- LEARN about food pathways
- Making rum in unexpected places
- A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
- Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures
- EXPLORE the connections between black cake and Emily Dickinson
- The Messy History of Emily Dickinson’s Black Cake Recipe
- Make Emily Dickinson’s Black Birthday Cake with The SugaChef
- CONTINUE the conversation with this year’s Emily Dickinson Birthday Tribute
We would like to thank the following organizations for their generous support of this program


Join us for a future event
Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon

Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon
The Folger is co-hosting a session of this year’s Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon at the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival. Join us in reading Emily Dickinson's poems!
Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 12pm
What is...Secularity?

What is...Secularity?
Join scholars as they question whether “secularity” remains a useful concept, and how its history can illuminate contemporary debates.
Thu, Sep 28, 2023, 4:30pm
The O. B. Hardison Season Opening Reading: Jorie Graham

The O. B. Hardison Season Opening Reading: Jorie Graham
Join us for a reading from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jorie Graham, followed by a conversation moderated by Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Tue, Oct 03, 2023, 7:30pm
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