Barbara Haber

Barbara Haber is a culinary historian and speaker. She is the former book curator of the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University. Haber is credited with expanding the library's focus on women's social history to include food-related books and cookbooks, as well as fiction and memoirs, despite critics that were originally against it.

In 1968, she began a part-time job at a then-small women's history library, the Schlesinger Library. During her time at Schlesinger, she expanded the library's collection from 8,000 to about 80,000 books—16,000 of which were food-related books or cookbooks.

Her addition of cookbooks to the library was initially controversial. The debate on whether cookbooks should have a substantial role in the library's collection started in 1943, and up until the late 1980s, the library generally did not allow the purchase of cookbooks.

In 1989, Julia Child added to the library's collection, donating 500 rare cookbooks from the American Institute of Wine and Food.

Her 2002 book, Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals, drew on materials in the Schlesinger Library to explore a range of culinary history topics, including its connection to society, politics, and economics. Haber retired from the Schlesinger Library in 2003 to pursue writing full-time. In 2005, Haber joined the James Beard Foundation awards board of governors. She later became a Committee Chair of the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America.

Works

Women in America: A Guide to Books, 1963-1975 (1981) Hardtack to Homefries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals (2002) - From Betty Crocker to Feminist Food Studies (2005, with Arlene Voski Avakian)