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Carhart Family Home Remedy Scrapbook

A description of their remedy book at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: LMD
Date: 27 January 2010

Biographical History

The Carharts were a prominent business family from Collamer, New York. Peter Sanford Carhart (b. 1826) was a farmer, inventor, and manufacturer who designed farm implements such as the Carhart's Two-Horse Cultivator. Peter and his wife Lucia Hulburt (b. 1841) had six children, including their first son Herbert Addison Carhart (1868-1941) and their daughter Angie Electra Carhart (1871-1964). Herbert was an engineer and inventor like his father who lived in Syracuse, NY with his wife Nellie M. Mead (1864-1960).

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Carhart Family Home Remedy Scrapbook is a small notebook used as a scrapbook for various housekeeping recipes and formulas. The notebook appears to have been first used in the 1850s to record financial transactions, probably by Peter Carhart whose name is stamped on the outside. The first 40 pages contain handwritten records of money paid by various individuals to the owner. Unfortunately, most of these original entries are now unreadable as they are covered by newspaper clippings and scraps of paper. Other names included in the book are "H. A. Carhart, Collamer, N.Y." (stamped on a piece of paper) and Angie Carhart (written on a postcard addressed to her).

The notebook appears to have been inherited by a later Carhart (probably Herbert or Angie) and then used as a scrapbook for home remedies and housekeeping formulas. The entries include remedies for various human and animal ailments, formulas for cleaning solutions and home repairs, cooking recipes, gardening advice, and other household tips. Many of these remedies and recipes are newspaper clippings, while others are handwritten in the notebook or on scraps of paper. Most entries are undated, but appear to be from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century.

Arrangement of the Collection

Single item.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Subject Headings

Persons

Carhart family.
Carhart, Angie Electra.
Carhart, Herbert Addison.
Carhart, Peter Sanford.

Subjects

Cookery -- United States.
Housekeeping -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions.

Places

Collamer, (N.Y.) -- History.
Syracuse, (N.Y.) -- History.

Genres and Forms

Clippings (information artifacts)
Scrapbooks.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Carhart Family Home Remedy Scrapbook,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Table of Contents

Scrapbooks

Inventory