The American Menu

New York City,  1890s  When eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon asked her father in 1897 whether Santa Claus really existed, he suggested...

U.S.S. Helena,  1906  The chronology of holiday menus from the U.S.S. Wilmington begs the question as to what the sailors in the Asia...

U.S.S. Wilmington ,  1906-1918 Caught in a storm off the coast of Luzon on the night of December 20, 1915, the U.S.S. Wilmington rol...

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 York City,  1895  Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky is credited with creating the first abstract painting, perhaps as early a...

  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...