Recipes for coconut as well as almond macaroons were published in Eliza
Leslie's "Directions for Cookery" (1837). Several other recipes include
"cocoa-nut" as an ingredient so coconuts were available in Philadelphia by this
time. It would surprise me if they were not widely available at a much earlier
date, as they were readily available in the Caribbean.

Andy Smith

Al though some might disagree, I'd put the US (and Australian) coconut
macaroon as an late 19th/early 20th century "invention" to utilize the
newly available processed coconut from the South Seas trade, sort of a
small change adjunct to the coconut oil business (and long predated by the
almond macaroon).

TMO