At the launch event for a digital humanities project initiated by GMU Libraries, art history major Isabelle Schwarz took home first prize for bread made from an authentic eighteenth-century English recipe.
The Fairfax-Spencer Family Recipe Book is held at the Fenwick Library Special Collections Research Center and contains over 250 recipes, ranging from baking, cookery, and alcoholic beverages to medicines and home remedies. Over the past several years, a team of librarians and students built a website containing transcriptions of the book's recipes and scholarly essays about the book and its maker, Elizabeth Fairfax of Yorkshire, England. On May 21, the library hosted a public event to showcase the launch of the project website. As part of the celebration, they invited participants to try their hand at making one of three baking recipes from the book.
Isabelle's caraway bread won the popular vote in a blind taste test. Isabelle is a sophomore art history major and will be studying abroad in London this summer. She is interested in a career in historic interpretation, using methods from experimental archaeology.
August 14, 2025