The American Menu

1877-1893   By the 1850s, Florida was already seen as a winter retreat, but tourism didn’t truly take off until after the Civil War. In the ...

Boston,  1875-1885  Almost everyone living in large cities ate in a restaurant from time to time during the late nineteenth century. Unless ...

1864-1938   O ne of the underlying themes of American ephemera is the expansion of the middle and upper classes. Over time, higher incomes a...

Paris,  1878-1923  French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted this portrait of a waitress at one of the Établissements Duval, ...

Christmas, 1878-1882 Emerging from a deep economic depression, the United States entered a period of rapid industrial growth in 1878. ...

London & Peabody,  1851-1869  Nineteen-year-old Winslow Homer illustrated this lively scene showing the celebration for London-base...

New York,  1860  Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Prince Edward, traveled through the United States on a diplomatic tour in the fall of 18...

New York City,  1866  The vault at Pfaffs where the drinkers and laughers meet to eat and drink and carouse  While on the walk immediate...

San Francisco, 1862 Christmas in San Francisco in 1862 was “a most lovely day,” according to botanist William Brewer. 1 “The city see...

Springfield, Mass. T his menu comes from the Massasoit House in Springfield, Massachuse tts on April 16, 1865. It was Easter Sunday—150...

Washington, D.C.  1865  During the first week of March 1865, the celebratory mood in Washington contrasted sharply with that in Richmo...

Henry County, Iowa 1878  Menus from small dinners in private venues during the nineteenth century are few and far between. They seem t...

1865-1903  The Presidential Range comprises seven mountains—all named for U.S. presidents—situated within the picturesque White Mountai...

New York City,  1869-1881  Antonio Savori a chieved some degree of notoriety during his lifetime. He was perhaps best known for the c...

New York City,  1869-1881  Despite the onslaught of a severe depression, Antonio Sivori got a job in early 1874 as the steward of t...

New York City,  1869-1881  By June 1872, Antonio Sivori was the proprietor of St. Mark’s Restaurant at 27th Street and Broadway, situa...

New York City,  1869-1881  One morning last spring, while combing through a box of old menus, I stumbled across a lost chapter of Amer...

  New Bedford & Honolulu,  1875  For those of us who live on the Mainland, the words “king,” “palatial residence,” and “Hawaii” ar...

Philadelphia  On Christmas Day in 1864, a special dinner was served to the 4,500 Union soldiers housed at Satterlee General Hospital, t...

New York City 1863 In the 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming , a Soviet submarine accidentally runs agroun...