Item 44 – Alice Catherine Scott's recipe book c.1920s

Item 44 from the Scott Chest is an account notebook containing handwritten recipes for food, cleaning products, remedies, and knitting instructions.

Item 44 – recipe book c.1920s (photo by Tom May)

The owner and author was probably Alice Catherine Scott, the wife of Alexander David Scott. The couple lived at 29 Harriet Street, Horsham. A few pages of the notebook are covered in childish handwriting (probably that of the Scotts' only child, Alexander Anthony), which include the date 1923. Alex has also written 'A M D G' which stands for Ad majorem Dei gloriam (for the greater glory of god)—the Latin motto of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

Alexander Anthony Scott's handwriting 1923 (Photo by Tom May)

Starting at the front of the notebook, a few pages are taken up with recipes for cleaning products etc. The food items start at the back of the notebook and fill most of it. Cakes and biscuits dominate and reflect the culture of 1920s Australia in general, and that of the Wimmera in particular. It is possible that Alice copied some of her recipes from the Weekly times, a newspaper published in Melbourne for rural readers. Other likely sources were family and friends.

Notable among the recipes is one for 'Anzac Crispies' (an alternate name for Anzac Biscuits). These biscuits are first mentioned in the Weekly times of 1 March 1919 when a columnist asks:
          Will someone kindly supply me with the recipe of Anzac Crispies, which is evidently a
          new kind of biscuit?

The origin of these biscuits is obscure and they are claimed by both Australia and New Zealand. Intended as a tribute to Australian and New Zealand soldiers, they were often used to raise funds for veterans.

ALICE’S ANZAC CRISPIES
Ingredients	Instructions
4 cups John Bull oats 2 scant cups of flour 1 cup butter 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoons soda 2 tablespoons Golden Syrup 4 tablespoons boiling water	Put oats flour & sugar in dish then add butter melted lastly syrup water & soda beaten together till it froths. Drop in teaspoons on cold tray bake in moderate oven for 10 minutes

The influence of German settlement in the Wimmera is evidenced in a recipe for German Cake. This kind of cake was a popular exhibit at Wimmera Agricultural Shows from the 1890s. Ingredients vary, but the Wimmera German cake always uses yeast as a raising agent.

ALICE’S German Cake
Ingredients	Instructions
7 cups flour 1 cup sugar ½ cup butter 1 cup milk 3 eggs well beaten 2 cups yeast	Rub butter into flour beat sugar & egg then warm milk & melt butter

Alice also honoured her Irish heritage by including a recipe for Urney Pudding, a dessert taking its name from the district of Urney in County Tyrone. In 1902, a columnist in the Weekly times said of this dish that it is 'a pudding that may bairns never get tired of.'

ALICE’S URNEY PUDDING
Ingredients	Instructions
2 eggs 2 ozs butter 3 of flour 1 of sugar ½ teaspoon soda 2 teaspoons of raspberry jam	beat butter & sugar to a cream add eggs 1 at a time then flour & soda lastly jam beat all well together steam in buttered mold for 1 ½ hours

Alice devoted one page of her notebook to instructions, presumably intended for her husband while she was absent from home. References to Twidle & Co. and the butcher, J. H. McDonald, date the entry to 1922 (the only year advertisements for these businesses appeared in the Horsham times). Before households had their own refrigerators it was necessary to visit the shops almost daily to obtain fresh perishables such as meat and dairy products.

Alice's instructions for Alexander David Scott c.1922 (photo by Tom May)

Physical description

Item 44: account notebook 10cm x 16.5cm, 20 pp., no covers. Handwritten entries in black ink, child's scribble in purple and grey lead pencil. Condition fair, some foxing and grease marks.

References

Horsham times, 21 July 1922, p. 5 (advertisement for McDonald, butcher, Wilson Street West).

Horsham times, 1 December 1922, p. 2 (advertisement for Twidle & Co's Firebrace St, Horsham —nearly opposite the post office).

Weekly times, 4 April 1903, p. 31.

Weekly times, 1 March 1919, p. 39.

Items 47, 49-50, 159-161 – hairdressing tools

Alexander Anthony Scott, Peter Scott's great grandson, was a hairdresser by profession. He seemed to prefer this term to 'barber', which was exclusively applied to men. In the first half of the twentieth century, male hairdressers usually only had male clients and their work included grooming facial and head hair.

Item 47 – hair scissors (photo by Tom May, 2016)

Alex probably served an apprenticeship with a certified barber or hairdresser after he left school, then worked in a number of different hairdressing saloons including at Daylesford and Horsham. Several of Alex's hairdressing tools are in the Scott Chest; three cut throat razors, a pair of scissors, a honing stone, and a strop.

Item 50 – Gotta razor in Invicta case (photo by Tom May, 2016)

It required skill to use these tools safely and to maintain them, so men often went to certified male hairdressers or barbers rather than shave themselves at home. This only changed with the invention and adoption of safety and electric razors. Many men also appreciated being able to keep up with the latest styles, which evolved rapidly in the twentieth century.

Item 160 – Honing stone (photo by Tom May, 2016)

While Alex was in the Australian Army, he used his barber skills to earn extra money, and, as he wrote to his mother in 1942, 'I have been keeping my hand in shaving a few of the troops so I shall not get out of practice.' He also tended his own hair and beard. In 1943 he wrote: 'Have trimmed my Mo down considerable of late, it now has a very stream lined appearance and is very suave and all that but it is still dark ginger in color.' Alex used quality German and English razors with good reputations, and maintained the condition of their blades with a strop and a honing stone.

Item 161 – hand held paddle strop (photo by Tom May)

Physical descriptions
Item 47: Hair scissors, 18cm. Blade obverse: 'Razor Silver Steel'. Obverse joint position: 'BLECHMANN | SOLINGEN | MADE IN GERMANY'. Reverse joint position: 'GES. | GESCHÜTZT'. Condition very good.
Item 49: Gotta Razor and case. On blade: 'HAMBURG RING | REG GOTTA | SUPERFINE'. Condition of blade fair. On tang: 'WEST GERMANY'. Obverse shank: '120 GOTTA'. Reverse shank: 'FINEST SILVER STEEL FORGED AND GROUND IN SOLINGEN - GERMANY'. Faux ivory handle: 'GOTTA'. Condition of handle very good. Two part case made of dark blue cardboard. Case obverse: 'The Gotta Razor 8/9', 'Real hollow ground in Solingen Germany'. Condition of box very good.
Item 50: Gotta Razor in Invicta case. On blade: 'HAMBURG RING | REG GOTTA | SUPERFINE'. Condition of blade excellent. Obverse shank: '120 GOTTA'. Reverse shank: 'FINEST SILVER STEEL FORGED AND GROUND IN SOLINGEN - GERMANY'. Condition of handle excellent. Two part case in dark maroon cardboard. Case obverse: 'INVICTA RAZOR', 'MANUFACTURED BY | E. M. DICKINSON | SHEFFIELD - ENGLAND'. Condition of case fair.
Item 159: Invicta Razor with Gotta handle. Obverse shank: 'INVICTA '. Reverse shank: 'E. M. DICKINSON SHEFFIELD - ENGLAND'. Condition of blade fair. Condition of faux ivory handle fair. 
Item 160: Honing stone, 13cm x 5cm x 1cm. Obverse: 'DAMAS | CUS | RAZOR | HONE | PAT. AUG. O5 | V. J. ULERY CO. NEW YORK USA'.
Item 161: Strop, 30cm. Hand held wooden paddle with leather strip on obverse. 'MAMON | PARIS | FRANCE'.

References
Letter 30 September 1942 Alexander Anthony Scott to Alice Catherine Scott.
Letter 29 July 1943 Alexander Anthony Scott to Alice Catherine Scott.

Scott-Murphy family tree

Item 1 – The Scott Chest

A wooden sea trunk used by the Scott family on their voyage from Scotland to Australia in 1851-1852.

The Scott Chest (photo by Tom May, 2016)

The Scotts, including Peter, his wife Isabella, and six children, sailed from London, via Plymouth, on 30 December 1851. Their ship, the barque Calphurnia, arrived at Port Phillip in the Australian colony of Victoria on 30 March 1852, after a journey of three months.

Although the UK government paid for the passages of a number of emigrants on Calphurnia, the Scotts are recorded as travelling ‘On own account to Melbourne’.

The family initially settled in the Western District, but when land was opened up for selection in the Wimmera in the 1860s they moved north, taking the Scott chest with them.

It was passed down the generations from Peter and Isabella Scott, to their third child, Henry, in turn to his second child, Alexander David Scott, and to his only child, Alexander (Alex) Anthony Scott.

After Alex died in 1984, his widow, Aubrey gave the chest to Sara Maroske. Aubrey and Alex had no children, and knew Sara was interested in history. She interviewed both Aubrey and Alex for the Bicentennial History Project, which published a new history of Australia in 1988.

Sara did not get to see the chest in its original condition, because her father (Ian Maroske), who was also a historian, looked through it first, and before passing it on painted the exterior green and lined the interior with a self-adhesive plastic paper known as ‘contact’.

Lachlan and Sara removed the contact in 2016, revealing a raw wooden interior, which was probably originally lined with paper or cloth. We do not know if there were any markings on the exterior.

Physical description

A rectangular wooden sea chest with brass hinges, handles, screws and nails. Dimensions: 86cm x 44.5cm x 37 cm. Constructed from a soft wood. Exterior painted dark green, with an unlined interior.

Brass lock (photo by Tom May 2016)

References

Horsham times, 16 December 1913, p. 3 (obituary Henry Scott)

Index to Assisted British Immigration 1839–1871, Public Record Office, Victoria.

Introduction to the Scott Chest

The Scott Chest is a wooden sea trunk used by the Scott family on a voyage from Scotland to Australia in 1851–52. The chest contains a collection of over 200 items related to the life of the Scott and Murphy families in the Wimmera region of Victoria, including letters, tools, containers, photographs, books and so on—dating from the mid nineteenth to the mid twentieth century.

The Scott Chest (photo by Tom May, 2016)

The original migrant Scott family consisted of Peter, an agricultural labourer, his wife, Isabella, and six children. They were probably motivated to leave Scotland by harsh local economic conditions, but could also have been attracted by the opportunities offered in Australia, where gold had recently been discovered.

The Scott Chest was probably one of a number of containers used to transport family belongings. It was passed down the generations until 1985, when a family member gave it to Sara Maroske. Sara and Lachlan Maroske have joined forces in a project to identify and describe its contents. We hope by that by so doing we can recover the history of an unpretentious rural Australian family, one of many who settled in this country in search of a better life. 

Every item in the Scott Chest has a story. We have numbered each item and will introduce them, one by one, or in groups—putting them in the context of the Scott and Murphy family histories, and detailing their condition and rarity. The items speak to many cultural themes, including the history of technology, family, migration, faith, earning a living, war and death.