The Waitress at Duval

Paris, 
1878-1923 

French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted this portrait of a waitress at one of the Établissements Duval, a small chain of low-cost Parisian restaurants. The first location opened in 1854 when a butcher named Pierre Louis Duval started using meat scraps to make broths.1 The Établissements Duval were often called “Bouillons Duval” or “Établissements de Bouillon” in reference to this signature dish. However, the restaurants were best known for their women servers who wore black dresses, half hidden by aprons and snow-white bibs, and caps.2 In 1881, the Baedeker guidebook advised travelers that the servers were “soberly garbed, and not unlike sisters of charity.” Similarly, a journalist at the New York Times noted the “neat, nun-like uniforms” reminded him of what the cooks wore in the kitchen of the House of Commons.3,4 Three menus recall these restaurants that were once an integral part of the Parisian scene.

Breakfast on the Mississippi

Steamer James Montgomery
ca. 1858 

Steamboats played a major role in transporting passengers and freight on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. By the 1830s, it was common to see more than 150 steamboats at the St. Louis levee at one time. The James Montgomery was one such paddle steamer. Built in 1856 at New Albany, Indiana (on the Ohio River opposite Louisville), this wood-hull, side-wheel steamboat was 270 feet long and powered by six boilers. A menu from about 1858 shows that large breakfasts were among the joys of being a cabin passenger on this antebellum riverboat.

An Era of Prosperity

Christmas,
1878-1882

Emerging from a deep economic depression, the United States entered a period of rapid industrial growth in 1878. Over the next five years, Thomas Edison patented the light bulb; John D. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Trust; and the railroad magnates added thousands of miles of new track, transforming a myriad of lines into a national network. The ranks of the middle and upper classes expanded once again, enabling more people than ever to dine at hotels on the holidays. Twelve Christmas menus from 1878 to 1882 reveal the food customs of the era that became known as the Gilded Age.

The Hump

Kunming, China
Christmas 1943 

The eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains was called “The Hump” by pilots who flew transport aircraft between India and China during the Second World War. The military airlift over the treacherous Himalayas supplied the Allies in China, including advance units of the U.S. Army. The missions were dangerous. In addition to the notable absence of airfields, there were no reliable navigation charts or radio aids and the weather was often  bad. The logistical challenge of operating this aerial pipeline is reflected by a non-traditional dinner at Army headquarters in Kunming, China on Christmas in 1943. Undoubtedly, the most appreciated item was a beverage not shown on the menu. 

The Charitable George Peabody

London & Peabody, 
1851-1869 



Nineteen-year-old Winslow Homer illustrated this lively scene showing the celebration for London-based financier George Peabody in South Danvers, Massachusetts in 1856.1,2 Peabody  returned to his hometown to dedicate the library he had recently donated. Besides his philanthropy, Peabody played a role in improving the relationship between the United States and Great Britain, which had been in the doldrums since the War of 1812. His charitable giving and diplomatic efforts naturally lead to banquets, both in his honor and as gestures of appreciation. A selection of menus recalls key moments in the public life of this great man, whose philanthropic legacy continues to benefit society.

A Brusque but Genial Guest

Milwaukee, 
1885 

Mark Twain was staying the Plankinton Hotel when this menu appeared in 1885. He was in Milwaukee on tour with Southern author George W. Cable, who marveled at Twain’s talent as a stand-up comedian. Writing to his wife Louise the next day, Cable revealed that Twain “worked & worked incessantly on these programs until he has effected in all of them—there are 3—a gradual growth of both interest & humor so that the audience never has to find anything less, but always more, entertaining than what precedes it. He says, ‘I don’t want them to get tired out laughing before we get to the end.’ The result is we have always a steady crescendo ending in a double climax….his careful, untiring, incessant labors are an education.” 

The menu, which includes a notice of a reading by the two authors at a local theater that evening, transports us back to a time when, after dinner, you could walk down the street to see Mark Twain perform in person.

Symbols of Abundance

Iowa, Wisconsin & Maine
1855-1858

Menus, which are marketing tools as much as anything, are best taken with a grain of salt. It can be particularly difficult to identify exaggerated claims on old menus far removed in time and place. In the mid-nineteenth century, a large assortment of roasts and boiled meats regularly appeared on table d’hote menus at hotels, where most public dining rooms were then situated. It seems unlikely that all of these items were available on a daily basis, especially at modest hotels in small towns. Four menus provide insights on how we might interpret such documents from the antebellum period. 

American Hospitality

New York, 
1860 

Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Prince Edward, traveled through the United States on a diplomatic tour in the fall of 1860, only weeks before the presidential election that would spark the Civil War. Crossing over from Canada on September 20, the prince and his retinue of British peers visited Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Washington. They dined with President Buchanan at the White House, slipped down to Richmond for a brief look, and resumed their journey northward to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. The trip ended at Portland, Maine. The future king, then a month short of his nineteenth birthday, was a welcome distraction from the nation’s political woes. He was enthusiastically feted at each stop, although nowhere more than in New York where the bustling newspapers whipped up a frenzy of excitement. His meals in the Empire State were prepared under the direction of some of the best chefs, hoteliers, and restaurateurs in the country. Five menus from this leg of the trip reveal American hospitality at its finest in the waning days of the antebellum period.

Thomas Frazier

Atlanta, Georgia
1888 

Thomas Frazier was the headwaiter at many fine hotels and resorts in the late nineteenth century. Born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1852, he was well known and much admired. I first became aware of him from a menu from the Kimball House in Atlanta in 1888. Even though he was an African American working in the post-Reconstruction South, snippets about him occasionally appeared in the Atlanta Constitution, indicating he was something of a local celebrity. One notice informed the readers, “Thomas H. Frazier, who enjoys the distinction of being the best headwaiter at any southern hotel, is off from the Kimball on vacation, and is in Florida visiting the various noted hotels of that state.” On another occasion, the newspaper noted that he received a silver cup on his birthday. Frazier was lavishly praised for his handling of the arrangements at the hotel for President Grover Cleveland’s visit to Atlanta in 1887. These reports confirm the evidence on the menu, leaving little doubt that Frazier was held in high esteem. 

Dancing at Reisenweber’s

New York City, 
1912-1915 

Reisenweber’s played a pivotal role in American popular culture during the second decade of the 20th century. While it is remembered today as the venue where jazz was introduced to a broader audience in 1917, its historical significance began earlier, during the dance craze that swept New York in 1912. It was the first restaurant to offer its patrons a dedicated space for dancing, which it vigorously promoted. The energy of this period of dramatic social change is captured in an audio slideshow featuring over ninety pieces of ephemera from 1912 to 1915. While most of the items reflect the location on Eighth Avenue at Columbus Circle, some pieces come from the properties it managed on Coney Island—the Brighton Beach Casino and the Shelburne Hotel—and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1915, which it catered.