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Savannah, Georgia 1896-1907
The message inscribed on the back of this postcard from the De Soto Hotel in Savannah, Georgia closes with the exclamation, “Plenty sight-seeing!” Unfortunately, the guest did not mention what he or she had seen in 1907 that prompted the enthusiasm. Tourist sights change over time based on the evolving interests of visitors. A menu from this hotel provides a clue, revealing at least one of the local attractions at the turn of the last century.
Paris,
ca. 1928
Willis Morgan was among the several hundred thousand African-American soldiers sent to France during the First World War. Born in Marshall, Texas in 1877, Morgan worked as a chef in railroad dining cars and Harvey House restaurants prior to becoming a mess sergeant in the U.S. Army. He served in the Philippines, on the Mexico border, and finally on the Western Front. After the Armistice, Morgan settled in Paris as part of the small but steady stream of Black Americans attracted by wartime memories of French racial tolerance. He opened the Chicago Inn at 31 Avenue Bourdonnais in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Later renamed the Chicago-Texas Inn, the restaurant was a popular tourist destination in the Jazz Age. A scarce menu from the late 1920s reveals the down-home American cuisine at this welcoming restaurant where Morgan’s French-born wife worked the cash register while their pet cat looked on from his favorite spot nearby.
Atlanta, Georgia
1888
Thomas Frazier was the headwaiter at many fine hotels and resorts in the late nineteenth century. Born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1852, he was well known and much admired. I first became aware of him from a menu from the Kimball House in Atlanta in 1888. Even though he was an African American working in the post-Reconstruction South, snippets about him occasionally appeared in the Atlanta Constitution, indicating he was something of a local celebrity. One notice informed the readers, “Thomas H. Frazier, who enjoys the distinction of being the best headwaiter at any southern hotel, is off from the Kimball on vacation, and is in Florida visiting the various noted hotels of that state.” On another occasion, the newspaper noted that he received a silver cup on his birthday. Frazier was lavishly praised for his handling of the arrangements at the hotel for President Grover Cleveland’s visit to Atlanta in 1887. These reports confirm the evidence on the menu, leaving little doubt that Frazier was held in high esteem.
St. Paul, Minnesota
1888
In January of 1888, a group of gentlemen held a dinner at a private club in St. Paul, Minnesota to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. This wartime executive order, issued by President Lincoln, freed the slaves in the Confederacy. The menu for the event included not only the bill of fare and list of toasts but also a remarkable seating chart. This chart featured the names of participants as well as leaders who were remembered for their roles in the struggle for freedom, symbolically present in spirit.
New York City,
1901
Booker T. Washington signed the cover of this menu from a dinner held in his honor at the Aldine Association, a New York club, in January 1901. The autograph adds a personal touch to this keepsake from what must have been an inspiring event. The dinner was hosted by The Outlook, a weekly magazine that had recently published a series of autobiographical essays by Washington. By the time of this occasion, the essays had been reworked into book form and were about to be published as Up from Slavery. In this autobiography, the renowned educator recounts his experiences as a child born into slavery during the Civil War, the challenges he faced in pursuing an education, and his efforts to establish vocational schools. Although the book enjoyed commercial success, subsequent events would soon reveal that its release had done little to ease the enduring racial prejudices held by many whites in the South.
Boston,
1892
Any document relating to an early African-American union is a rarity, such as this menu from a ball held by the Tremont House Waiters’ Association in 1892. Reflecting the traditional values of this group, the nine-page menu contains the bill of fare, concert program, and order of dances, as well as the names of the officers and management committee. Its most revealing feature is a portrait, perhaps of the association president, which expresses the calm and confident spirit of the time and place. Unbeknownst to these waiters, this joyous social gathering marked the apex of their collective lives.
Topeka, Kansas
1883
Ephemera often contains unwitting historical evidence. A case in point is provided by a small menu from the Copeland Hotel in Topeka, Kansas in 1883, the same year Emma Lazarus captured the welcoming spirit of America in her famous poem that included the line: “Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...” Although a dish on the menu alludes to this ideal, the railroad timetable on the back reveals the harsh realities of a time when masses of dispossessed people were migrating throughout the United States.
Mississippi River,
1857
This Currier & Ives print titled “Wooding up on the Mississippi” depicts the steamboat Princess taking on firewood for its engines. Scenes like this painted a romanticized picture of life along the Mississippi River that continues to endure. However, the reality was far from idyllic. By the mid-19th century, over 4,000 people had died on riverboats due to boiler explosions alone. Beyond such hazards, the institution of slavery permeated everyday life in the South. The Antebellum South, having “erected its economic edifice...on the shifting sands of opportunism and moral brigandage,” was an unpleasant and hellish society for most of those who lived it.1 An 1857 menu from the Princess provides unwitting historical evidence about this part of the American past.
