BA.food folks may be interested in this online archive of historic
American cookbooks. Here's the link to The Hotel St. Francis Cookbook,
one of 76 completely digitized in the archive:

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/...ks/book_73.cfm

The book was published in 1919. The archive's notes:

"This selection is another of the books which was named as one of the
California 100, a bibliographic listing of influential California
imprints on food and wine. [See also Los Angeles Times Cook Book No.
2]. Hirtzler's book was first published in San Francisco in 1910. This
revised Chicago imprint is an American classic. Hirtzler, who can be
considered one of the early "celebrity chefs", presented seasonal
menus, highly sophisticated dining and included local California foods
such as California oysters, sand dabs, and San Francisco Squabs."

The main page for the digital cookbooks is he

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/...ml/browse.html

Warning - please don't access this site while at work or trying to
accomplish anything worthwhile. Usenet readers on rec.food.cooking are
already reporting tardiness and other job-related problems due to
excessive browsing of this site.

Thanks to the Ranger for telling me to cross post to ba.food. If you
don't like it, contact the Ranger.

Leila