Macaroni and Similar Pastes

Macaroni and Similar Pastes is a colorplate included in American author and advertising executive Artemas Ward’s The Grocer’s Encyclopedia. A thirty year endeavor, the encyclopedia was published in 1911 after innumerable revisions and additions. Ward wrote to countless producers and manufacturers around the world for information, photographs, and illustrations related to all things grocery with the goal of compiling a comprehensive compendium of the history, preparation, storage, marketing, and use of food.

Working closely with the American Colortype Company, Ward included over 80 full color pages, like this systematic scheme of starchy silhouettes. The array appears alongside an extensive history, where Ward is careful to point out pasta’s Italian origins as a distinctly European perspective, with its true lineage hailing from China and Japan—a refreshingly conscious outlook for the time.