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Kay Shaw Nelson Papers

An inventory of her papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MRC
Date: 15 Sep 2008

Biographical History

Kay Shaw Nelson (1926-2019) was an American writer and researcher on a variety of current and historical topics relating to food and travel.

Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, Nelson graduated from Syracuse University in 1948 with a degree in Russian studies and journalism. She worked as a reporter for several New Hampshire newspapers before taking a job as an intelligence officer for the CIA. Beginning in 1951, she and her husband Wayne, also a CIA intelligence officer, spent many years abroad in the Middle East, the Far East, Europe, Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean. In 1997 she wrote an introduction entitled "How to go from spies to pies: Operation Gastronomy" for the best-selling cookbook Spies, Black Ties, & Mango Pies: Stories and Recipes from CIA Families All Over the World. She wrote numerous cookbooks on topics ranging from soups and salads to cooking with yogurt and mushrooms. She also wrote hundreds of articles for national publications such as the Washington Post, Gourmet, Woman's Day, and Family Circle, and contributed to newspapers as a columnist and culinary historian.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Kay Shaw Nelson Papers consist of menus, personal papers, recipes, and research materials.

Menus contains menus from all over the world, including Australia, China, India, New Zealand, North Africa, and the United States. There are also menus from airlines, trains, and cruises, like the R.M.S. Queen Mary and the S.S. United States. The bulk of the menus seem to be gathered during Nelson and her husband's time abroad working for the CIA, yet the majority of menus have no dates to verify this.

Personal papers includes articles written by Nelson, some biographical material, like a few photographs and several articles about her, promotional material for and reviews of her cookbooks, and a group of materials collected by Nelson. This personal collection includes culinary journals, a Jerusalem menus booklet, an African Diaspora Cookbook published by the Smithsonian, a set of Russian recipes in Russian, and more.

Recipes consists of books, bookets, pamphlets, and other printed items, and demonstrates the wide range of food topics Nelson found interesting, from Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine and seafood to Scandinavian cuisines and Arabic recipes. While there are a few booklets written in Danish or Swedish for a native audience, the vast majority of recipes and booklets are in English and intended for an American audience. Thus, the Japanese and Chinese booklets are traditional Chinese dishes but written with the American cook in mind. Several of the booklets were published by corporate manufacturers of food or food-related products, including Campbell's Soup and Reynnolds Wrap. An important recipe book in this collection is a mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth century recipe book written by Edouard Lambert, a French-trained chef. Included in the book is a job application letter written by Lambert in 1909 specifying his credentials to a prospective employer and offering several chefs as reference when he worked in France and New York City. Before his recipe section are several poems by Lambert. The whole book is written in French, suggesting that he was either French or from a French-speaking country.

Research materials includes articles and newspaper clippings on different topics, like fish, Inupiat and Alaska, Key West, Florida, and the Shakers, pertinent to her cookbooks and culinary history articles.

Arrangement of the Collection

The original order created by Nelson was kept when appropriate. The collection is arranged alphabetically then chronologically.

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.

Related Material

Many of the cookbooks donated with the menu collection have been transferred to Rare Books for cataloging. Please refer to Libraries Search and search "Gift of Kay Shaw Nelson" for a complete listing.

Subject Headings

Persons

Nelson, Kay Shaw.

Corporate Bodies

Aluminum Company of America.
Campbell Soup Company.
Furst-McNess Company.
Land O'Lakes, Inc.
Nordic Ware (Firm)
Reynolds Wrap Kitchens (Firm)
Sunbeam Corporation.
Washington Gas Light Company.
Woman’s World Magazine Co., Inc.

Subjects

Baking.
Breakfasts.
Brunches.
Casserole cooking.
Cookbooks.
Cooking (Mushrooms)
Cooking (Seafood)
Cooking (Vegetables)
Cooking -- New England.
Cooking, Australian.
Cooking, Austrian.
Cooking, Barbadian.
Cooking, Belgian.
Cooking, British.
Cooking, Costa Rican.
Cooking, Danish.
Cooking, European.
Cooking, Fijian.
Cooking, French.
Cooking, German.
Cooking, Greek.
Cooking, Irish.
Cooking, Italian.
Cooking, Mexican.
Cooking, New Zealand.
Cooking, North African.
Cooking, Norwegian.
Cooking, Polish.
Cooking, Portuguese.
Cooking, Russian.
Cooking, Scandinavian.
Cooking, Scottish.
Cooking, Spanish.
Cooking, Swedish.
Cooking, Swiss.
Cooking, Turkish.
Desserts.
Dinners and dining.
Eskimo cooking.
Food writing.
Gastronomy -- History.
Hawaiian cooking.
Holiday cooking.
Indian cooking.
International cooking.
Inupiat.
Menus.
Molded dishes (Cooking)
Mormon cooking.
Quaker cooking.
Salads.
Seasonal cooking.
Shaker cooking.
Side dishes (Cooking)
Soups.
Yogurt.

Genres and Forms

Clippings (information artifacts)
Cookbooks.
Menus.
Photographs.
Recipe cards.
Recipes.

Occupations

Women food writers.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Kay Shaw Nelson Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Kay Shaw Nelson, 2008, 2010, 2013.

Table of Contents

Menus

Personal papers

Recipes

Research materials

Inventory