The Home Messenger Book of Tested Receipts. Total Abstinence. Respectfully Dedicated to the Patrons and Friends of the Detroit Home of the Friendless.

Detroit, MI: E. B. Smith & Company, 1878. Very good. Second edition; 7 3/4 x 5 1/4; pp. [5], iv-xv, [2], 2-287; pebbled green cloth over boards; gilt title to spine and elaborate gild decorations to front board; illustrated with one wood engraving; silk-ribbon loop to top of spine for hanging (as published); small rubbed spots to tips of spine and corners; faint signature of previous owner to ffep; a few minor spots; overall in about very good condition.Second edition of Detroit's first cookbook, this second edition would also be the first to present Angel Food Cake as a variation of white sponge cake, the name coined by Isabella Graham Duffield Stewart (1830 - 1888), a philanthropist and daughter of Rev. George Duffield (1794 - 1868) - a leading 19th-century New School Presbyterian minister, who served the First Presbyterian Church of Detroit (also called First Church of Detroit). In the early 1860s, at the onset of the Civil War, Rev. Duffield would gather the women of the First Church and would task them with finding ways to help the less-fortunate citizens of the city, primarily focusing on women and children. That would lead to Isabella founding and presiding over the "Home of the Friendless" - a charitable agency still existing today under the name "Children's Aid Society" - for which she would bring together women from more than ten Detroit churches. Shortly after, in 1862, the first edition of the current book would be published as a fundraising effort for the agency. Included were numerous recipes for oysters and lobsters, cakes, mutton and poultry, sauces, macaroni, and so on.