Lynne Olver (1958–2015) was a
librarian
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...
and
food historian
Food history is an interdisciplinary field that examines the history and the cultural, economic, environmental, and sociological impacts of food and human nutrition. It is considered distinct from the more traditional field of culinary history, ...
, and the sole author of the Food Timeline website.
Personal life
Olver graduated from the
University of Albany (SUNY). She was a librarian at the
Morris County Library, New Jersey, and became its director in 2009.
The Food Timeline
In 1999, Olver created ''The Food Timeline'', a history website documenting
culinary history
Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs ...
,
food history
Food history is an interdisciplinary field that examines the history and the cultural, economic, environmental, and sociological impacts of food and human nutrition. It is considered distinct from the more traditional field of culinary history, ...
and recipes. The website has since become a major information source for culinary history. Almost all of the website's information comes from Lynne's personal library of over 2,000 books.
Unlike many other food related websites, Olver gave citations to almost every statement on her site so that readers can verify her claims. Her research has been cited in peer-reviewed journals.
Following her death, the site was given to her family, who chose to remove social media accounts associated with the Food Timeline, but kept the website running in a state of dormancy. As such, the website is no longer maintained. The site's
domain
Domain may refer to:
Mathematics
*Domain of a function, the set of input values for which the (total) function is defined
**Domain of definition of a partial function
**Natural domain of a partial function
**Domain of holomorphy of a function
* Do ...
supposedly expires in 2025,
but , the
WHOIS
WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomou ...
database shows that is set to lapse in April 2022.
It has been widely reported that the Olver family is searching for a person or persons to maintain and possibly grow the website.
Virginia Tech
On November 11, 2020, the Olver family announced on the Food Timeline's Twitter account that they have selected the
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...
's Food Studies Program to be the new curators for the Olver's website after reviewing over 80 other applicants. The Food Studies Program thanked ''
Eater
Eater may refer to:
* Eater (band), an English punk rock group
* "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself''
* ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford
* ''Eater'' (w ...
'' and writer Dayna Evans for bringing the Virginia Tech unit in contact with the Olver family. The Food Studies Program is headed by history professor
Anna Zeide
Anna Zeide is an American academic and author. She is an associate professor of history at Virginia Tech and writes on food, consumerism and food systems. She was previously at Oklahoma State University.
Early life and education
Zeide was born ...
. In December 2020, Virginia Tech acquired the "website and accompanying physical library" and plans to "carry on Olver's legacy and create space for new research and student internship opportunities".
Audio interviews
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Audio biography
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References
External links
The Food Timeline website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olver, Lynne
Food historians
1958 births
2015 deaths
University at Albany, SUNY alumni