Music on the Menu

1878-1978

“Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist,” observed English writer G. K. Chesterton. Nevertheless, music has become an inescapable part of eating outside the home. While menus almost never reveal what was played in the background of restaurants and hotel dining rooms, they reflect the world of music in a myriad of other ways. 

Where the Immigration Inspectors Dined

New York City, 

1904-1905 

The immigration station on Ellis Island reopened in 1900 after a fire destroyed the original complex three years earlier. By 1902, “Kindness and Consideration” signs were posted throughout the halls, reminding immigration inspectors, social workers, and medical staff to treat the newcomers with empathy and respect. From 1900 to 1918, ten million people passed through Ellis Island. Unlike the 19th century, when most of the immigrants hailed from Northern and Western Europe, the early 20th century saw a massive surge from Eastern Europe, Czarist Russia, and Southern Italy. Menus from annual employee outings in 1904 and 1905 reflect the cuisines of these newer arrivals, an irony given that some staff members opposed the immigration policies of the time. The pair of menus brings to mind the phrase “unwitting historical evidence,” sometimes used to describe ephemera.

Impressions of American Hotels

1883-1898

Max O’Rell was the pen name of Léon Paul Blouet, a well-known French author and journalist in the late nineteenth century. Beginning in the fall of 1887,  O'Rell visited the United States for six months, traveling as far west as Chicago. After a second tour in 1890, he published A Frenchman in America in which he humorously described American manners and customs with acerbity. Chapter IV, titled “Impressions of American Hotels,” is reproduced below with some of the original illustrations and relevant menus from the period.

When Maria Parloa Visited Tilden Ladies’ Seminary

New Hampshire,
1881

Tilden Ladies’ Seminary in West Lebanon, New Hampshire was a progressive institution established in 1855 when most female boarding schools focused on activities like needlework and music. Two pieces of ephemera from 1881 provide a rare glimpse of this school and a guest lecturer named Maria Parloa, one of the country’s first celebrity chefs. 

An Early Chidren's Menu

Boston, 

1885 

Menus designed exclusively for children first appeared in department stores and railroad dining cars in the 1920s and were more broadly adopted by restaurants after the Second World War. A hand-written menu from a seven-year-old birthday party in February 1885 reveals what a children’s menu might have looked like had they existed in public dining spaces in the late nineteenth century. 

The 15-Cent Houses

Boston, 

1875-1885 

Almost everyone living in large cities ate in a restaurant from time to time during the late nineteenth century. Unless poverty stricken,  average citizens patronized small eateries that served English-style fare at rock-bottom prices. There was nothing fancy about the food or the service. Dubbed 15-cent houses, these meat-and-potatoes restaurants seldom warranted attention in the press and exceedingly few menus have survived. One source of historical evidence is provided by handbills and business cards advertising specific dishes. A selection of such ephemera from ordinary restaurants in Boston from 1875 to 1885 reveals the food customs of the middling and working classes, especially when compared to similar material from other dining niches of society. 

Charles Dickens in Boston

1842 & 1925

Charles Dickens was enthusiastically fêted when he visited the United States in 1842 and 1867-68.  For many years afterward, these grand affairs lingered in the collective memory of the novelist’s most ardent admirers, as revealed by a menu from a dinner of the Dickens’ Fellowship in Boston in 1925.

In the Good Old Summertime

Wilmington, Delaware

1911

This postcard marks the second day of a trapshooting competition at the DuPont Gun Club on July 11, 1911. The recreational club had been established the previous year on the grounds of the Experimental Station of the DuPont Company that was then in the business of manufacturing gunpowder. Interestingly, the card includes the lunch menu—fried chicken, potato salad, and ice cream. The scene recalls the song “In the Good Old Summertime,” a popular tune of the era when life was seemingly less complicated.  

Economic Precarity

1864-1938 

One of the underlying themes of American ephemera is the expansion of the middle and upper classes. Over time, higher incomes and increased leisure time fostered a culture of consumption and new social customs like eating outside the home. Not surprisingly, menus become increasingly scarce as you descend the economic ladder. By the time you reach the lower classes and those living in poverty, such material evidence is practically nonexistent. Nevertheless, menus and photographs occasionally surface that reflect segments of the population being pushed from a livable life, often by a financial crisis or war.

Om Shanti

Los Angeles, 

1971 

The front of this large menu from 1971 features the word “om” in Devanagari script. Underneath is a description of this sacred sound in Indian religions that ends with the mantra “om shanti,” meaning peace. Since the name of the restaurant is not shown on the cover, the menu is sometimes thought to have originated from a place called Om Shanti. It actually comes from a Los Angeles vegetarian restaurant named H.E.L.P., an acronym for health, education, love, and peace. The menu marks the moment in culinary history when vegetarianism began to enter into the mainstream of American life.