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Rupert H. Wheldon

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Rupert H. Wheldon
Born
Rupert Henry Wheldon

(1883-07-03)July 3, 1883
DiedJune 6, 1960(1960-06-06) (aged 76)
Occupation(s)Photographer, activist
SpouseAnna M. Wheldon
Signature

Rupert Henry Wheldon (July 3, 1883 – June 6, 1960) was an American photographer and veganism activist.

Biography

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Wheldon was born in Philadelphia to Henry David Wheldon and Marianne Wilson. He moved to England as a small child, where he spent most of his life.[1] Wheldon married Anna M. Wheldon and had five stepchildren.[1] He worked as a photographer in Petaluma from 1926 to 1942; he was the proprietor of Sunset Studios located at 23 Western Avenue.[2]

Wheldon's book No Animal Food, published by C. W. Daniel in 1910 and by Health Culture Co. the same year, is often cited as the first vegan cookbook.[3][4][5] However, Asenath Nicholson had authored the first vegan cookbook, Kitchen Philosophy for Vegetarians, in 1849.[6] Wheldon's book contains a hundred vegan recipes and eschewes animal foods for "ethical, aesthetic, and economic reasons."[3][5] It was positively reviewed in the Vegetarian Society's The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review, but was largely forgotten, causing Fay K. Henderson's Vegan Recipes in 1946 to be erroneously cited as the first vegan cookbook.[3]

In the final months of his life, Wheldon moved to Salinas, California, where he ran a health food store. Following a short illness, he died on June 6, 1960, in a Salinas hospital.[1]

Selected publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Rupert Wheldon Passes Away in Salinas Hospital". The Californian. Salinas, California. June 7, 1960. p. 4.
  2. ^ "Wheldon, Rupert". Portraits of Petaluma Pioneers. April 5, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Leneman, Leah (1999). "No Animal Food: The Road to Veganism in Britain, 1909–1944" (PDF). Society & Animals. 7 (3): 219–228. doi:10.1163/156853099X00095.
  4. ^ Puskar-Pasewicz, Margaret. (2010). Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism. ABC-CLIO. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-313-37556-9
  5. ^ a b Inness, Sherrie A. (2005). Secret Ingredients: Race, Gender, and Class at the Dinner Table. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-34-953164-6
  6. ^ "Key facts". The Vegan Society. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
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