The American Menu

New York City,  1882 Valentine’s Day was wildly popular in the late nineteenth century, reflecting the values of a society that prize...

New York City,  1841-1860 One of the underlying themes of American ephemera is the rise of the middle class. T he overall standard of...

Boston,  1849-1851 Tremont House - Boston (ca.1838) Hotels are so ubiquitous that it is easy to forget that they were once a novel c...

New York City,  1887 New York was, after Berlin and Vienna, the third largest German-populated city in the world in the late nineteen...

New York City,  ca. 1956 Irving Berlin published his first song in 1907 and four years later, Alexander’s Ragtime Band became his...

Ellis Island,  1923 ...“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your tee...

Boston 1909-1927 The “deafening drone of vuvuzelas” won’t be heard at the 127th football game between Harvard and Yale this weekend. Ac...

Cunard Line, 1856 English railroad magnate Henry Pease, growing weary at the end of an eleven-day voyage across the Atlantic in 1856...

Hot Springs, Arkansas Christmas, 1875 T his essay was published in The Book Club of California Quarterly, Winter 2019.  While touring...

New York City,  2010 In August 2009, critic Frank Bruni awarded Eleven Madison Park a perfect four stars in the New York Times . The ...