The American Menu

Chinese- American Restaurants 1896-1926 Chinese restaurants first opened in the United States during the California Gold Rush. In the e...

San Francisco,  1908  Interfoliata is the technical term for items found between the pages of a book. These unexpected discoveries can...

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...

Iowa & New York, 1889  In the 1967 movie The Graduate , Mr. McGuire gives young Benjamin some unsolicited career advice:  Mr. Mc...

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

Long Beach, ca. 1941  This elegant, scallop-edged menu comes from the fabled Sky Room in the old Hilton Hotel in Long Beach, Californi...

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

Thanksgiving,  1943  Norman Rockwell painted this iconic scene in 1943. Depicting a family dinner on Thanksgiving, the painting “Freed...

When I look at this menu from the late 1960s, I can’t help but imagine what it would’ve been like if the English writer Virginia Woolf, and...