About Ashley
I’m Ashley Rose Young, a historian, author, and curator interested in the stories of everyday American life. Food is one of my favorite ways into those stories: it can reveal how people built communities, made a living, crossed boundaries, and claimed a place in public life.
My book, Nourishing Networks: The Public Culture of Food in New Orleans (Oxford University Press, 2025), follows the vendors and customers who fed the city across generations. It asks us to look beyond celebrated dishes to the people whose work and choices shaped New Orleans food culture. I also write for general audiences, including an essay for Bon Appétit on how foods become American.
Today I’m Curator of American History in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress. I work with rare books and other materials that open new windows onto American life, developing exhibitions and public stories from the collections. I’m also a Smithsonian Research Associate.
Before joining the Library, I was the historian of the Smithsonian Food History Project at the National Museum of American History. I hosted Cooking Up History, collaborating with chefs and home cooks to explore history through live food demonstrations. That work taught me how much can happen when people encounter history together—through a conversation, a recipe, or a question from the audience.
My interest in food and history began long before my career did. My mother’s family ran specialty food markets in Pittsburgh, and my father, a history teacher, filled our family trips with historic places. At Yale and later Duke, where I earned my Ph.D. in history, those interests grew into a commitment to research that could reach beyond the academy.
Whether I’m writing, curating, interviewing a guest, or leading a food or cocktail demonstration, I want to make the past vivid, accessible, and useful for thinking about the present.
