The collection is open for research.
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Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Janet Barnhill Collection on Cora Bolton McBryde, Ms2016-019, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
Materials in the collection were donated to Special Collections and University Archive in two separate accession: The cookbook in 2013 and the artifacts in 2016. Additional items were donated in 2018.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Janet Barnhill Collection on Cora Bolton McBryde was completed in December 2016. The pitcher, cup, and stand were added to the collection in 2018.
Cora Bolton was born to James (1812-1869) and Anna Maria Harrison (1813-1873) Bolton in Richmond, Virginia, on August 4, 1839. She was the eldest of six children. Her father was a physician who worked in the Richmond area, includnig during the American Civil War. In 1860, Cora, then 19, was living with her family there.
Cora married John McLaren McBryde on November 18, 1863. They had eight children, six of whom lived to adulthood: Janet (1864-1869), James (1866-1925), Anna (1868-1948; later Mrs. Robert J. Davidson), John McLaren, Jr. (1870-1956), Charles (1872-1962), Susan (1874-1951), Meade (1877-1959), and Waid (abt. 1878-?). The 1880 census places the McBryde family in Knoxville, Tennessee, where John McBryde was teaching at the time.
By 1891, they had settled in Blacksburg, where Cora would spend the remaining 29 years of her life. Cora died in Blacksburg, Virginia, in 1920 at the age of 80. She is buried in Westview Cemetery.
You can see several photographs of Cora and her family in a post on the Special Collections blog.
Sources: Cora Bolton McBryde on Find a Grave
Ancestry Library Edition
The Janet Barnhill Collection on Cora Bolton McBryde consists of a handwritten recipe book belonging to McBryde, as well as three peraonal artifacts: an anniversary plate, a Tiffany & Co. silver spoon, and a metal mold. Most of the materials are undated, other than the plate (1913), but they likely date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection also contains a pitcher, cup, and stand, c. late 1890s. More detailed description of each item is provided in the "Contents List" below.
See also the following related collections at Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives:
Records of the Office of the President, John McLaren McBryde, RG 2/5
J. Bolton McBryde Collection, Ms1992-059
McBryde House Specification Records, Ms1999-010
Larry McBryde Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family, Ms2013-024
Polly Ashelman Collection on the John McLaren McBryde Family, Ms2019-017
John M. and Cora Bolton McBryde Family Papers, Ms2023-069
Midhurst, J.M. McBryde Estate, Blacksburg, Va., Map-0276
Photographs of John M. McBryde are in the Faculty/Staff Photograph Collection
The guide to the Janet Barnhill Collection on Cora Bolton McBryde by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your- work/public-domain/cc0/).
This manuscript cookbooks (which also includes some recipes clipped from newspapers) belong to Cora Bolton McBryde. It's unclear when she began keeping it, but like many handwritten recipe books, it was added to over time (suggested by the changing writing tools) and may include additions from several generations (suggested by the various handwritings). The cookbook contains a wide variety of recipes, as well as planned (or intended) menus and some children's scrawls and scribbles. The majority of the recipes are for sweet dishes, including "Cora's Date Pudding," sponge and coffee cakes, puddings, snows, and icings. In addition, there are handwritten and clipped recipes for meat and fish dishes, vegetables, salad dressings, and breads. At least 3 recipes are attributed to "Flora," who could have been Cora's daughter-in-law, Flora Webster McBryde (wife of John, Jr.).
This Tiffany & Co. silver spoon belonged to Cora and was passed down through her family. It includes the original blue Tiffany & Co. bag.
This metal mold (also called a turban pan) generally dates to the 1910s-1930s. Since Cora McBryde died in 1920, it likely comes from one of the earlier decades.
This white plate is decorated with a gold leaf design. A note on the bottom indicates it was received in celebration of John and Cora McBryde's 50th wedding anniversary (November 18, 1913).
The pitcher was used in the Grove by Cora and John McBryde, and was kept on a hall table in the house.