10/14/2026
It's WHRC Wednesday! October 14th is National Dessert Day, and we are in the midst of National Cookbook Month - so naturally, our thoughts turned to the WHRC cookbook collection. For your enjoyment today are two dessert recipes from the 1930 "Ames Woman's Club Cook Book" (Iowa), part of the club's decades-spanning efforts to raise funds for a permanent clubhouse: Paradise Pudding, submitted by Alice Iverson, and Lemon Pie, submitted by Belle Iverson.
Sisters Alice, Belle and Nellie Iverson, daughters of immigrants from Norway and Bohemia, were long-time members of the Ames Woman's Club. While at first glance there's not much to discover about their lives, archival research can give us hints at their story. The Ames Tribune tells us that in 1931 Alice and Nellie co-hosted a meeting of the club's "evening division," for example; the census suggests that all three women made their living as teachers and dressmakers at various points, so it makes sense that these working women attended the club's evening meetings. Unexpected resources, like a community cookbook, are another great source of detail. Alice and Belle both contributed several recipes to the 1930 cookbook; a survey of the dessert sections hints that Alice focused on puddings, while Belle's specialty was pies. We're still looking through the book to see if Nellie contributed to other sections, or if she left the cooking to her sisters.
See how cleverly we transitioned from National Cookbook Month to National Archives Month? If you're doing archival research for your family or club, be sure to use a wide variety of sources, and think outside the box; you never know what colorful details you might be able to discover in the records.
And to round out our coverage of October's month-long events, it's worth mentioning that, sadly, Alice Iverson died in 1955 after a year-long battle with breast cancer. Schedule your mammograms, ladies.
GFWC Iowa
