FOOD, CULTURE, AND POWER: THE ROLE OF FOOD IN HISTORY

                                                  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Spring 2001-2

                                                                       Prof. Martha Carlin
 

                                                                   SOME HISTORIC MENUS:
 

I.  Asia:

 Bible (1 Kings, 5:2-3): daily provisions for Solomon's palace (Jerusalem, 970-928 BC)

 Ashurnasirpal, King of Assyria (Calah, Assyria): palace inauguration banquet (883-859 BC)

 Sir Edwin Arnold: description of a Japanese dinner party (1890)

 Helen Caddick, Travel Diaries (1889 - 1914): Description of a dinner at Dr. Wang's (China?, 1909)
(Scroll down to extract for 19 Feb. 1909)

 Kashmiri royal banquet, or Wazwan (20th cent.)
 

II.  Africa:

 Ibn Battuta (b. Morocco 1304? d. 1368?), Rihla (Travels): Food in Somalia (January 1331, Mogadishu)
(Scroll down to extract by Ibn Battuta: "They cook banana before it is ripe")

 Olaudah Equiano: typical meals in Nigeria (later 18th cent.)

 Richard Francis Burton: typical breakfast and dinner menus in West Africa (1850s)
(Scroll down to extract by Burton: "Most of the dishes are boiled" )

 Richard Francis Burton: food of the Arabs of the Lake regions of Central Africa (late 1850s)
(Scroll down to extract by Burton: "Boko-Boko is the roast beef--the plat de resistance--of the Eastern and African Arab")

 Richard Francis Burton: the staple food of the poor in the Lake regions of Central Africa (late 1850s)
(Scroll down down to extract by Burton: "Such is ugali, or porridge, the staff of life in East Africa")

 Richard Francis Burton: Diet of the wealthy in the Lake regions of Central Africa (late 1850s)
(Scroll down to extract by Burton: "Meat is the diet most prized")

 Richard Francis Burton: dinner with traders from Zanzibar (late 1850s)
(Scroll down to extract by Burton: " The plat de résistance was, as usual, the pillaw" )

 Alexander Bulatovich, diary of a journey in Ethiopia with the army of Menelik II: dinners (1897-8)
(See the Russian diarist's entries for 27-28 December 1897, 11 Jan. 1898)

 Ernest Hemingway: typical food of the Masai (East Africa, 1933)
(Scroll down to extract by Hemingway)

 Sembene Ousmane: fast food in the market stalls of  French West Africa (1970)
(Scroll down to this excerpt from Ousmane's novel, God's Bits of Wood: "The stalls of the women who sold foodstuffs")

 Richard Trench: dinner with nomads of the Malian Sahara (1974)
 

III.  Europe:

 Mucius Lentulus Niger (Rome): pontifical feast (63 BC)

 Some Roman menus (1st cent. BC - 1st cent. AD)

 Petronius Arbiter (c. AD 27-66), Satyricon: Trimalchio's banquet
(A fictional meal.)

 The Ménagier of Paris: menus for meat-day banquets and dinners (Paris, early 1390s)

  Two royal banquet menus (London and Westminster, England, c. 1390s)
(Menus for a feast given  for Richard II by "Lord Spenser" (Thomas le Despenser, created earl of  Gloucester 29 Sept. 1397), and  for a feast at the king's court.)

  King Henry IV (Westminster, England): coronation banquet (Oct. 1399)

 John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Wells (Wells, England): induction feast (Sept. 1425)

 John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury (Canterbury, England): installation feast (1443)
(Scroll down to Stafford's menu.)

 A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye (London, c.1545): sample dinner and supper menus
(Scroll down to the section headed:  "¶. Here after foloweth the order of  meates how they must be served at the Table with their sauces for fleshe dayes at dynner.")

 A.W., A Book of Cookrye (London, 1591)
(Sample menus for dinners and suppers are given at the beginning of this early  printed cookbook.)

 Painting: still life (17th century)

 Samuel Pepys (London), Diary: menu of a dinner at home (26 Jan. 1660)
(Scroll down to read Pepys's diary entry for 26 Jan. 1660.)

 Hannah Woolley, The Gentlewoman's Companion: or, A Guide to the Female Sex (London, 1675)
(Scroll down to the end  of the recipes to click on two chapters containing sample menus: "Section -- A Bill of Fare of Suitable Meat for Every Month  in the Year," and "Section -- Bills of Fare for Fasting Days or Lent.")

 British Navy diet: daily rations for sailors (late 1700s)

 Fishmongers' Hall, London: banquet menu (March 1857)

 George Brant, Diary ("My Journey from Portsmouth to Rockhampton Australia"): description of ship meals (1884)
(Scroll down to entry for 23 Sept. 1884.)

 Alexander Palace (Tsarskoye Selo, Russia): Luncheon on the Empress's Name-Day (April 23, 1897)

 RMS Titanic: menus for all classes (April 1912)

 Alexander Palace (Tsarskoye Selo, Russia): Luncheon Honoring the Visiting British Fleet (June 1914)

 Jan Struther, Mrs. Miniver: New Year's Eve lunch and Hogmanay tea (London, late 1930s)
(Fictional account of an upper middle class London family.)

 Belgian Restaurant, New York World's Fair: luncheon menu (July 1939)
 
 

IV.  The Americas:

Moctezuma II (early 16th cent.): royal meals (the Aztec king's meals, as described by Bernal Diaz.)

 Tremont House: Bill of fare. Table d'hote (Boston, Massachusetts: 30 August and 2 Sept. 1847)
(Click on images to enlarge them.)

 Elizabeth Le Breton Gunn, Journal and Letters: descriptions of meals (on board ship, Philadelphia-San Francisco, 1851)
(See, e.g., descriptions of meals on pp. 94, 98-99) and  (Sonora, California, 1851-4) (see, e.g., descriptions of meals on
pp. 140, 141.)

 Hancock House: bill of fare (Quincy, Massachusetts, 17 June 1853)

 Dinner given by San Francisco firemen "to our brother firemen" of  Stockton (San Francisco, California, 5 July 1856)

 Mrs. S. L. Skilton's Eating House: Bill of fare (Boston, Massachusetts, 1860)

 Julia Johnson Fisher, Diary: description of daily meals and Christmas dinner (Camden County, Georgia, 1863-4)
(Scroll down to entries for 6 Jan. and 13 Jan. 1864.  Other entries describe this Southern household's fluctuating food supplies during the months of January-August 1864.)

 Emma Florence LeConte, Diary: Description of a typical day's meals (Columbia, South Carolina, 23 Jan. 1865)
(Breakfast and dinner for a  Southern family, near the end of the Civil War.  This entry is on page 11 of the text.)

 Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural ball, dinner menu (Washington, D.C., March 1865)
(Scroll down for photograph of the original menu, and click on it to enlarge it.)

 Hardy's Delmonico lunch (Boston, Mass., Dec. 1868)

 Knox and Co.'s Horticultual Dining Rooms (Boston, Mass.): bill of fare ( Feb. 1869)
(See all 4 pages.)

 Mary Snow Sinton, Diary: wedding dinner (Caroline, New York, Dec. 1880)
(The wedding is described under the entry for 6 Feb. 1881.)

 Alice Cunningham Fletcher: Diary (Dakota Territory, 1881): descriptions of meals while camping with the Sioux
(Click on calendar  for diary entries for September 16 (dinner), September 23 (supper), October 1 (dinner), October 13 (breakfast and dinner),  October 24 (breakfast and supper).)

 Dinner and breakfast menus for correspondents travelling to the Republican national convention (30-31 May 1884)
Meals provided by the B. & O. Telegraph company to the Washington correspondents travelling to the Republican national convention in Chicago.  Dinner was at the Queen City Hotel in Cumberland, Maryland, and breakfast in the B. & O. dining car on the train.

 Carrie Sayre, Travel journal, from Ohio to Kansas: supper (Sept. 1885)

 Plaza, New York: dinner menu (Nov. 1899)

 Haan's Restaurant (New York): bill of fare (Dec. 1899)

 Child's Lunch Rooms (New York): bill of fare (Jan. 1900)

 Sherry's, New York: Sunday luncheon menu (Feb. 1900)

 Sherborn Reformatory Prison for Women: prisoners' meals (South Framingham, Massachusetts, 1911)
(Click to view the document (an article by Jeanne Robert), then click forward to the second page, which is p. 431 of the text.)

 Miriam Florence Best: Diary (Mankato, Minnesota, 1911-13): descriptions of meals
(The diarist was attending the Mankato State Normal School, or teachers' college.  Click on "Diary entries, Part 2," and scroll down to the entries for Friday, Feb. 21, 1913, and Tuesday, April 1, 1913.)

 Trocadero Cafe Restaurant, Los Angeles: Sunday dinner menu (6 April 1919)

 Rice and papaya in the lunch of a sugar worker on a plantation (vicinity of Guanica, Puerto Rico?, Jan. 1942)
(Photograph by Jack Delano; click on photograph to enlarge.)

 Camp Harmony (Japanese-American internment camp, Puyallup, Washington): descriptions of daily meals (1942)

 US Naval Base, Port Hueneme, California: Thanksgiving dinner menu (1944)

 US Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: Ship's Service Restaurant menu (1946)

 McDonald's original menu (San Bernardino, California? 1948)

 Company A, 84th Engineer Battalion (Qui Nhon, Vietnam): Thanksgiving dinner menu (1965)

 Cruise ship, SS Monterey (Los Angeles-Honolulu): dinner menu (Oct. 1973)
 

V.        Australia

Menu for a dinner held in the Sydney Town Hall, 21 August 1883
(From the papers of Sir Edmund Barton)

 Menu for Hardwicke Society annual dinner, Holborn 1901
(From the papers of Sir Edmund Barton)

 Menu for a dinner [given] to the South Ward Committee and Workers by F. Stroud, (Cheltenham, 1903)
(This appears to be a menu for a Christmas dinner.  From the papers of Sir Edmund Barton.)