Chapter 56

Authors: Louis Grivetti and Howard-Yana Shapiro

Title: Chocolate Futures: Promising Avenues for Further Research.

The Chocolate History Research Group, represented by historians and scientists from Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, Fort Ticonderoga, New York, The University of California, Davis, and MARS, Incorporated, is a team of more than 90 scholars. We have conducted our research in two stages. The first project consisting of faculty and senior research students associated with the University of California, Davis, who identified and traced the medical and dietary uses of chocolate from New Spain (the Americas) into Western Europe. This research conducted from September 1998 through December 2001, consisted of extensive field work and archival, library, and museum work conducted in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Key presentations of our findings were delivered at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, at the Annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington DC, and at the Annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Glasgow, Scotland. The second project-with a focus on the history of chocolate in North America-was initiated in mid-September, 2004, and data collection extended through December, 2007. Research was conducted primarily within archives, libraries, museums, and private collections; using digitized collections of North American books, broadsides/leaflets, newspapers, and periodicals; complemented with limited field interviews. Given the richness of the documentation globally available on chocolate history, we did not attempt an all inclusive approach as excellent books already have covered the basic, background relative chocolate history. Our decision was to provide more depth and documented detail to the books already published. In doing so we assembled a team with demonstrated skills in archival research, linguistic training (for translating and interpreting 16th century Spanish-related documents). We also took advantage of the professional connections of our respective team members, and then elected to focus on specific countries and themes/topics where we were strongest, leaving well-defined gaps for others scholars to follow in the years to come. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to offer suggestions where further inquiry and detailed efforts into the fascinating world of chocolate history would be productive.

Previous
Back to Chapter Overview page