This week I will be focusing on W.E.B Du Bois’ Dark Princess. In this narrative, our protagonist Matthew Towns is a medical student at the University of Manhattan, which now known as City College of New York. Our story begins in New York, which is home to the famous pastrami on rye. Mapping the bread’s origins, the grain’s earliest existence is recorded in southwestern Asia around 1700 BC. Around the middle ages, it was imported to Europe where it became a favorite in Germany. At the time, Germany had a favorable Jewish population which adopted this popular grain. Since then, it has become a staple in eastern European Jewish communities throughout the world like Israel and most appropriately New York. This bread became a prominent part of New York culture when Sussman Volk put pastrami in between two slices of bread, added mustard, and sold it at his kosher deli on Delancy st back in 1888.
Being that Dark Princess is set in the early 1900s, pastrami on rye would have most likely been a meal many medical students would have consumed on busy study days and medical professionals would have consumed on their lunch breaks. On page 4 of Dark Princess, Du Bois pens “then with bowed head he plunged down 165th street.” I include this quote because 165th st is currently filled with many deli’s that sell pastrami on rye and this is most likely true for the early 1900s.
I wonder how you came up with the idea of pastrami on rye out of all foods :-0 Pastrami is definitely an underrated food nowadays in NYC and it’s interesting to think about the significance of the sandwich in the context of the different communities who enjoy eating them (Jewish communities, Washington Heights, etc). -Leadora
Excellent! This is exactly the sort of food detour we want to take in this class. Indeed let’s talk about Manhattan universities today and the significance of City College as a sanctuary for Jewish intellectuals because they were often excluded from other elite institutions and especially the Ivy League. And Pastrami and Rye still such a NYC classic. Nice work!