The author of Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation was Fredrick Wilkerson Waugh, born April 14, 1872 in Langford, Ontario, a small community in Brant County. Waugh’s interests, broadly, included technology, ethnology, and linguistics. During his spare time, Waugh conducted research on the Six Nations Reserve, located near the Grand River in southern Ontario. Waugh’s interests and research caught the eye of members of the Geological Survey of Canada who hired Waugh to study Iroquoian technology. Over a span of twelve years, between 1911 and 1923, Waugh filled several roles for the Geological Survey of Canada, including providing expertise on ethnology. During this period, Waugh committed a significant amount of time to researching various Indigenous groups in eastern Ontario. Specifically, Waugh investigated Haudenosaunee communities and spent much of his time learning about the Iroquois. Waugh's research was primarily concerned with material culture, technology, food, medicine, and mythology. The cookbook Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation is a product of this research.