Fisher, Abby
c.1831-1915 · Contribution: 1881
Author of a celebrated 1881 Southern cooking cookbook; built a successful pickle and preserves manufacturing business
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
Despite being unable to read or write, Fisher dictated a cookbook that won her medals at state fairs and became one of the earliest known cookbooks by a Black American woman, later rediscovered at a 1984 Sotheby's auction and now preserved by Harvard's Schlesinger Library and Michigan State University's historic cookbook archive.
Life & background
Born into slavery in South Carolina, Fisher moved to San Francisco with her husband and eleven children in 1877, where she built a celebrated pickle and preserves manufacturing business, 'Mrs. Abby Fisher & Co.,' winning medals at the Sacramento State Fair and San Francisco Mechanics' Institute Fair. Unable to read or write, she dictated her recipes to friends and patrons, resulting in the 1881 publication of 'What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking,' which faded into obscurity until a copy resurfaced at a 1984 auction and was subsequently archived as a key work of early American cookery.
Sources
- Atlas Obscura; Johns Hopkins Hub
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