New York University’s Fales Library and Special Collections is pleased to announce the naming of its Food and Cookery Collection in honor of Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. The collection will now be known as the Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection.
Ceremony Celebrating the Naming Takes Place April 18th at 4pm at NYU’s Fales Library
"Marion came to my office in 2003 with a vision: NYU should build a research collection for food studies,” said Marvin J. Taylor, Head, Fales Library and Special Collections.
Nestle worked with her department to found the Steinhardt School’s food studies programs in 1996--the first of their kind in an American university. But the library needed scholarly resources to support doctoral-level research. Nestle worked with Fales curator Marvin Taylor to acquire the Cecily Brownstone cookbook collection of more than 7,000 volumes. Brownstone was the Associated Press food editor from 1947 to 1986, and had accumulated the volumes over the span of her 39-year career.
“We acquired Brownstone’s collection and it became the foundation of our food holdings in the Fales Library,” Taylor continues. “Marion is a tireless supporter of the food collection here at Fales. Through her contacts with collectors, we have built a collection that now numbers over 55,000 volumes, making us the largest food studies collection in the U.S. No one has done so much for the cause of food studies and libraries,” he added.
“I am, of course, thrilled beyond belief by this honor,” said Nestle. “The Fales food studies collection is an extraordinary resource for food scholars at NYU and in the greater research community. It’s been such a pleasure to see it established and watch it grow in breadth and depth. I couldn’t be prouder to have my name on it, or more grateful,” Nestle said.
The Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection is a very large and rapidly expanding collection of books covering a wide perspective on American, ethnic, and international cooking and manuscripts documenting food and foodways with particular emphasis on New York City. Scholars and food enthusiasts can access the collection via appointment M-F 10a-5:45p. To schedule an appointment, please email Fales at fales.library@nyu.edu.
Carol A. Mandel, dean of the NYU Division of Libraries, says, “Food studies now illuminates research across a wide range of disciplines, from health and nutrition to history, anthropology, literature, and more. We are grateful to Marion Nestle for her vision and good counsel and honored to have her name associated with this unparalleled research collection.”
“The collection is crucial to the training of all our students and a substantial number of them find it indispensable in terms of conducting research for doctoral dissertations, Masters Theses and undergraduate theses,” said Krishnendu Ray, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Nutrition, Food Studies & Public Health at NYU Steinhardt.
A celebration of the naming will take place on Thursday, April 18, 2013 from 4-6pm at the Fales Library, third floor, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, (at LaGuardia Place). [Subways A,C,E, B,D,M to West 4th Street; 6 line to Astor Place; R train to 8th Street.].
The event is free and open to the public. RSVP to rsvp.bobst@nyu.edu with your name and title/date of event. Program begins at 4pm with a reception to follow.
About Marion Nestle
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003. She is also Professor of Sociology at NYU and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley. Previous faculty positions were at Brandeis University and the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. From 1986-88, she was senior nutrition policy advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services and editor of The Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health. Her research examines scientific and socioeconomic influences on food choice, obesity, and food safety, emphasizing the role of food marketing.
She is the author of three prize-winning books: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health; Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety; and What to Eat. She also has written two books about pet food, Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine and Feed Your Pet Right (with Malden Nesheim). Her most recent book is Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics (also with Dr. Nesheim). Her new books in 2013 are the tenth anniversary edition of Food Politics in May and Eat, Drink, Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics, to be published in September by Rodale Books.
She writes the monthly (first Sunday) Food Matters column for the San Francisco Chronicle, blogs daily (almost) at www.foodpolitics.com, and twitters @marionnestle. In 2011, the University of California School of Public Health at Berkeley named her as Public Health Hero, Time Magazine included her Twitter among its top most influential 140 and its top 10 in health and science. Writing for Forbes, Michael Pollan ranked her as the #2 most powerful foodie in America (after Michelle Obama), and Mark Bittman ranked her #1 in his list of foodies to be thankful for. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Transylvania University in 2012.
The NYU Division of Libraries comprises five libraries in Manhattan and one each in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. Its flagship, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library on Washington Square, houses more than four million volumes and received 2.5 million visits last year. Around the world the Libraries offers access to more than 800,000 electronic journals, books, and databases; its website received three million visits last year. The Fales Library & Special Collections, housed within the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, holds a renowned collection of the English and American novel from the mid-18th century to the present, and the Downtown Collection, a multimedia archive documenting the New York art world since 1975, as well as the food studies collection. For more information about the NYU Libraries, please visit http://library.nyu.edu