Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Menus

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Menus
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
1852-1965
Languages:
Collection is in
English
. A few items and portions of menus are in
French
,
German
,
Dutch
,
Italian
.
Physical Description:
2.8 Cubic feet
consisting of 6 boxes , 1 folder, 4 oversize folders, plus digital images of some collection material.
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Accounting and Bookkeeping forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Menus consists of approximately 700 menus from restaurants, principally within the United States. The material dates from 1852 to 1963, with the bulk of the material from 1880s to the 1920s. Most menus are from dining establishments and includes day-to-day fare and pricing, plus some special menus. Some are standard issued menus, others are souvenir menus. Prix fixe and a la carte menus are both present. A number of the menus are from railway and shipboard travel. Special event menus often contain additional details or listings of persons honored or attending, with some including background information. Menus are predominantly paper, but a few examples are printed on textiles or wood and a couple are leather bound. Menus may have decorative covers; some are embossed, hand-painted or decorated with ribbon or gilt. There are a few menus printed on satin ribbon. Menus from ships, railroads and the Christmas menus from the United States Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts offer good examples of decorative covers.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged into six subseries.
  • Blank Menus
  • Events and Celebrations
  • Holidays
  • In Transit, Travel-Based
  • Location
  • Named Honoree

Administration

Author
Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Menus is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Processing Information
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections.
For this subject, minimal processing included arrangement to the folder level, based on prior processing and preservation action, with retention of the pre-existing arrangement when possible, if applicable. Otherwise, an order was imposed by the Processing Archivist. Some materials were consolidated to eliminate excess bulk but items within folders were not arranged further. The guide may or may not include a more refined lists of folder contents. Non-archival housing was replaced for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.
Minimal level processing and machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, March 2017.

Digital Content

More …

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Preferred Citation
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Menus, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Dining Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Food Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dining cars Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dinners and dining Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Railroads -- Dining-car service Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Holidays Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Diners -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Menus -- 20th century Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Menus -- 1940-1950 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Menus Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Restaurants Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives Center, National Museum of American History
P.O. Box 37012
Suite 1100, MRC 601
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
Business Number: Phone: 202-633-3270
Fax Number: Fax: 202-786-2453
archivescenter@si.edu