Kelly or anyone that might be interested,
I did contact the Library of Congress at:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ under, ask a librarian.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ to see if I could find any articles that might have be printed in newspapers before 1905 about pizza. I did specifically ask about the article mentioned in the New York Tribune.
This is what I wrote, and what the librarian replied from the Library of Congress.
Question History:
Patron: Do you have access to any old (1900- 1905) newspaper articles from NYC
about how Italian immigrants brought over and made the first pizzas, before any
pizza businesses were opened, or maybe where I could find information about the
first pizza business maybe by some kind of Italian posts. I am studying about
pizza in NYC and would like to find out what I can. I do have a lot of
information and the earliest thing I can learn was from 1903 when a pomidore
pizza was made in NY. I think that article was in the NY Tribune.
Thanks!
Librarian 2: I did find the article you mentioned from the New York Tribune.
However, I haven't found many other newspaper articles in our indexes. Here are
two though, the second of which goes into some detail:
1. Headline: What to Eat; Article Type: News/Opinion
Paper: Morning Herald, published as The Morning Herald; Date: 12-29-1902;
Volume: 32; Issue: 363; Page: 2; Location: Lexington, Kentucky
2. Headline: "Hot Cakes" in North Street Toothsome Dainties, Favorites with
Neapolitan Palates, Are Pizze Cavuie And; Article Type: News/Opinion
Paper: Boston Journal, published as Boston Sunday Journal; Date: 10-04-1903;
Issue: 522; Page: 12; Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Scans of the articles are attached.
I would suggest that you search for "pizza" in Google Books. Limit your search
to 19th century publications and you will find mentions decades before 1900.
Since books before 1923 aren't under copyright, you should typically be able to
view these books in their entirety through Google.
I hope this information is of some help. Thank you for contacting the Library of
Congress.
Thomas P Jabine
Newspaper and Current Periodical Room
Serial and Government Publications Division
Library of Congress
Explore history's first draft at Chronicling America: Historic American
Newspapers - <http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/>
This is the link I found after searching the above link.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1903-12-06/ed-1/seq-35/;words=pizza?date1=1836&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=&date2=1904&proxtext=++Pizza&y=14&x=5&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0 And this is the scanned article, that I typed out from the Library of Congress. A few of the scanned words, might not be correct, because the scan was kind of hazy.
“Hot Cakes” IN NORTH STREET
Toothsome Dainties, Favorites with Neapolitan Plates, Are Pizza Cavuie and Taraluccio--Beer, Not Wine, Therewith.
Scattered though North and Prince streets and other portions of the Italian colony where Neapolitans congregate are occasional little shops with the words “Pizze Cavule” on the windows. The words mean simply “hot cakes” in the Neapolitan dialect. But only a traveler would know that the pizze are one of the famous products of Naples, eaten by rich and poor, high and low, and dutifully partaken of by every tourist as one of the features that must be “done” in order to say that one has seen Naples. The devotion of the American race to pie is a poor thing in comparison, with that of the Neapolitans for their pizze. It is a deeper passion than that of Devonshire for clotted cream, or of Boston for baked beans. Every restaurant serves them, and after the play is over the theatre-goers pour into cafes to eat hot pizze.
Neapolitans in Boston say that there are few place in the city to which the famous Naples specialty has been successfully transplanted. A visit to one these reveals a window piled so high with great round Italian cheeses that the interior is invisible. Entering, one sees a long table, covered with brown oilcloth and bounded by long black benches. One side of the room is lined with little private supper rooms about the size of theatre boxes, petitioned off with black wood. Each is filled with a party of men, peacefully dining on pizze. A bright tin bucket of beer is in the centre of the table, and passes from lip to lip without the formality of glasses. The shop does not sell beer. When a man gives his order he takes a bucket from a stack provided for the purpose, and goes to a neighboring bar for his beer. By the time he gets back his order is ready, for the pizze cook quickly.
Making the Cake
In behind, two Neapolitan bakers, clothed in white are baking pizze from morning till night, and almost from night until morning. Quantities of dough are kept prepared, made in fat rolls. The baker takes a roll, and with a few deft slips flattens it as flat as a pancake but somewhat thicker and little larger than in ordinary pie. Then he dobs bits of lard on its surface. Over this he sprinkles grated cheese, from a dish which stands always full beside him. Then he pours on cooked tomato and on top he throws a handful of oreganta, the spicy aromatic herb which is such a favorite Italian seasoning. The cheese used is Roman, so much employed for culinary purposes. The whole operation has not taken him more than a minute. The he slaps it on a broad, flat, long-handled paddle, and thrusts it into the furnace. In two minutes it is done.
It comes to the table on a big, flat pewter plate. Ordinarily individual plates are not furnished or required, for every true Neapolitan takes his piece of pizze, folds it over so that the crust is outside, and eat it from the hand. The pastry seems to be a cross between bread dough and pie crust, and is not lacking in suggestions that when cold it might lie somewhat heavily upon the unaccustomed interior. But as a whole the confections is enticing, by reason of its delectable hot-ness and crispness, and the cunning blend of spicy flavors for which it is renowned. It is probably indigestible, but certainly no more than Welsh rarebit.
On the walls of the pizze shop are the pictures of the King and Queen and of Garibaldi, and also a placard which with elaborate politeness begs the customer to be so kind as not to be in a hurry, as patience will enable them to be better served, and also to have the goodness not to be offended if on Sunday, by reason of crowd, the are required to pay when they give their order.
A cake of this size is 10 cents, and there are smaller one for 5 cents. In Naples the price ranges from 10 cents down to a penny for little one containing only a good-sized mouthful. A favorite cry for them at the doors of the bakeries in Naples is “Ca’pumarola e elice”, which is dialect for “With tomatoes and anchovy,” some of them being made with anchovy there, though the fish is never added here. Men may sometime be seen on the streets, particularly on feast days, carrying tray of the hot cakes fresh from the bakeshops, and crying “pizzelle”. These are merely the baked dough, however, without any of the added ingredients which make the pizze so succulent a morse.
Norma
