The Pantry by Catherine Seiberling Pond

7. The Pantry
Its History and Modern Uses
by Catherine Seiberling Pond
nonfiction, 2007
finished, 2/2/10

This is my perfect book. It has been sitting on an old library table in the living room since the day it came in the mail. I pick it up nearly every day and look through it. The photographs set me dreaming. I've now read the book in its entirety, and have found the words to be as beautiful as the photographs.


There is factual information, there are old advertisements, there are poems, there are quotes,

and there are photographs of pantries.

My favorite quote in the book is about the problems of multi-tasking, written 120 years ago!

Calmness and method ... are the housekeeper's best friends. Do one thing at a time. (There! I've forgotten my bread in the oven! I put it into bake when I was writing. All burnt on top! Oh, Dear!) Where was I? Oh, one thing at a time! Don't stop to shed a retrospective tear over old letters in the garret while baking sponge cake, nor hunt for eggs in the barn with the pantry door wide open for the cat to enter in search of a nice dessert. A housekeeper needs her wits about her.
Mrs. Mary R. P. Hatch, Daughters of America, 1890

The Pantry is divided into such chapters as:

The Early American Pantry: Larders, Butt'ries, and Storerooms
The Farmhouse Pantry: Workrooms of Self-Sufficiency
The Victorian Pantry: The Realm of Domesticity
The Twentieth-Century Pantry: Its Rise, Fall, and Return

You may recall a cookbook mentioned here a few years ago, called The New England Butt'ry Shelf Cookbook. In the entry, I wrote about how I grew up with a 'butt'ry.' It was a north-facing little room off the kitchen, with wainscoted cupboards and linoleum countertops (which are still in great shape 60 years on). Several years ago, I thought of starting an email list called, The Country Butt'ry Recipe Exchange with this as the premise:

The essence is to offer a place for women to exchange recipes that are either old family favorites, or new ones using genuine, old ingredients. Here is not the place for meals made in the microwave. In this kitchen we bake in the oven, filling the house with the wonderful smells of fresh bread, or fruit desserts, or brownies. This is the place to come where you are filled with the warmth and goodness of cooking with real ingredients. This is a list for the sharing of breads and desserts, strawberry shortcakes and cranberry bread. This is a vegetarian kitchen so no meats or fish or lard. Eggs and butter and milk are heartily welcomed though! I hope there will be a mix of old and young women who love cooking.

Well, I never did it, but the idea expresses the 'essence' of who I am. I'm not a crafter or knitter or seasonal decorator. The heart of my home is the kitchen.

I 'met' the author by typing 'butt'ry' into a search engine. Turns out that she is also a fan of the lovely little cookbook. Catherine Seiberling Pond is such a nice person, and she has a beautiful blog. You may buy this book directly from her. If you go here you may see a slideshow of photographs from the book. They are my inspirations for some house work we are doing; revamping a space that was a farmhouse butt'ry when we bought the house. It was essentially gutted and for several years was a space for dogs to go when their company wasn't appreciated in the rest of the house. The walls are a mess, the floor was a wreck, but slowly, slowly it is becoming a space that I love. I'm showing some pictures of where we are so far. Tom built that wonderful ceiling to floor shelving with beadboard backing. We haven't decided yet if we are going to paint or varnish.


The old Larkin desk (which Tom's late step-grandfather won by selling soap as a young boy) has been given a new purpose as a storage space. It is right across from the new shelves.


My Hoosier has made appearances here before.


This kind of cupboard is featured in The Pantry. There's a great old ad telling the reader that:

Hoosier cabinets save one-half the time and one-half the labor by grouping every article at your fingers' ends.

Not only does The Pantry offer a fascinating glimpse into the history of pantries, and incredibly gorgeous photographs, but it also is set up beautifully. It is a feast for the eyes and inspiration for the imagination. You will come to the end knowing that you, too, can create something this beautiful, even in a small way. Catherine offers practical ideas on tranforming an area into a pantry, and she has lists of what to put in your pantry.

So, truly, this is a perfect book: it is history, is is beauty, it is a guide, and perhaps most importantly it can be your own personal dreambook. Please do buy it for yourself. You will be so very glad you did.

Addendum: Cornflower wrote about The Pantry here.