This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Size | 2.0 feet of linear shelf space |
Abstract | African American businesswoman and cook Mildred Council ("Dip") was born on a farm in rural Chatham County, N.C, in 1929. In 1957, Council became the manager of Bill's Barbecue, a restaurant owned by her father-in-law in Chapel Hill, N.C. She opened Mama Dip's Country Kitchen in Chapel Hill in 1976. The Mildred Council Papers consist of personal, family, and restaurant materials. The original deposit includes handwritten and typed drafts for Mama Dip's Kitchen (1999). The drafts contain extensive descriptions of farm life in North Carolina during the Depression of the 1930s; notes on Mildred Council's family in Chatham County, N.C., Chapel Hill, N.C., and elsewhere; and information relating to ingredients and preparation of various southern-style recipes. The addition of January 2020 documents Mildred Council and her extended family in social, business, and church settings. Materials include correspondence, printed materials, writings, recipes, photographs, an interview, and scrapbooks with publicity about Mildred Council and Mama Dip's restaurant. |
Creator | Council, Mildred. |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | English. |
This finding aid compiles archival collecting, description, and preservation work performed by: Nancy Kaiser, Chaitra Powell, Patrick Cullom, and Rebecca Stubbs, January 2020
Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, January 2020
The revised finding aid compiles archival collecting, description, and preservation work performed by: Clare Carlson, Jessica Venlet, Chaitra Powell, and Nancy Kaiser, April 2020.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
African American businesswoman and cook Mildred Council ("Dip") was born on a farm in rural Chatham County, N.C, in 1929. Her father, Ed Cotton, was a farmer, while her mother, Effie Edwards Cotton, taught school in Chatham County.
Council attended cosmetology school in Durham, N.C., graduating in 1947. She then married Joe Council, with whom she had eight children while holding down a variety of food preparation jobs. In 1957, Council became the manager of Bill's Barbecue, a restaurant owned by her father-in-law in Chapel Hill, N.C. She opened Mama Dip's Country Kitchen in Chapel Hill in 1976. Dip's has become a landmark for southern-style cooking in the region. In 1999, she published Mama Dip's Kitchen, which contains both recipes and reminiscences.
Back to TopThe papers of African American businesswoman and cook Mildred Council consist of personal, family, and restaurant materials. The original deposit includes handwritten and typed drafts for Mama Dip's Kitchen (University of North Carolina Press, 1999). The drafts contain extensive descriptions of farm life in North Carolina during the Depression of the 1930s; notes on Mildred Council's family in Chatham County, N.C., Chapel Hill, N.C., and elsewhere; and information relating to ingredients and preparation of various southern-style recipes. The addition of January 2020 documents Mildred Council and her extended family in social, business, and church settings. Materials include correspondence, printed materials, writings, recipes, photographs, an interview, and scrapbooks with publicity about Mildred Council and Mama Dip's restaurant.
Back to TopAcquisitions Information: Accession 98504
The papers of African American businesswoman and cook Mildred Council consist of handwritten and typed drafts for Mama Dip's Kitchen (University of North Carolina Press, 1999). The drafts contain extensive descriptions of farm life in North Carolina during the Depression of the 1930s; notes on Mildred Council's family in Chatham County, N.C., Chapel Hill, N.C., and elsewhere; and information relating to ingredients and preparation of various southern-style recipes.
Box 1 |
Cookbook drafts |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 20200131.1
Processing Note: The collection was received from the donor as loose papers and arranged into format/subject groupings by the collecting archivists.
The addition of January 2020 consists of personal, family, and restaurant materials. Materials include correspondence, printed materials, writings, recipes, photographs, scrapbooks, and an interview.