The American Menu

1864-1938   O ne of the underlying themes of American ephemera is the expansion of the middle and upper classes. Over time, higher incomes a...

Los Angeles,  1971  The  front  of this large menu from 1971 features the word “om” in Devanagari script. Underneath is a description of thi...

New York City,  1948  The Dairy Restaurant is a fascinating new book by writer and cartoonist Ben Katchor. Jewish dairy restaurants attract...

New York City,  1882  Menus are generally the only documents that speak to how people dined outside the home in the nineteenth century. Yet,...

Savannah, Georgia  1896-1907  The message inscribed on the back of this postcard from the De Soto Hotel in Savannah, Georgia closes with the...

Washington, D.C.,  1859  One of the last glittering events of the antebellum era occurred in February of 1859 when a ball was held for Briti...

The South and West  April 14 – May 15, 1891   In the spring of 1891, two years after being in office, President Benjamin Harrison embarked o...

New York City,  1905  John W. Gates (1855-1911) was a steel magnate, financier, and gambler. He became widely known as “Bet-a-Million” Gates...

New York City,  1906  The Waldorf Hotel was built with women in mind. Proprietor George Bolt’s wife, Louise, was herself a hôtelière ...

New York City, 1906 This manuscript account book, bearing a typed label reading “Property of Mr. Oscar,” recently came into the collec...