digital-collections/menus, which can be viewed in high resolution and in minute detail.
The menus hark back to days when an in-flight glass of Johnnie Walker Black Label cost all of 50 cents, and a beer half of that, if free alcoholic beverages were not an option.
"The 380-plus menus not only document the history of airline cuisine, they conjure up a time when flying was a more elegant and more comfortable form of travel," says Robert Sarmiento, head of Northwestern University's Transportation Library. Though primarily airline menus, the collection includes items from cruise ships and railroads.
Written in English, Japanese, French, Urdu, Chinese, Spanish, and other languages the menus — from 54 national and international transportation companies — are sometimes as noteworthy for their artwork as for their culinary aspects.
Often beautifully illustrated, they depict miniature wood figures from the 19th century (Air India), birds in flight (American Airlines), details from 300-year-old inns (Swissair), 18th century murals (Borisat Kanbin Thai), and watercolor scenes of life around the world (Air France and other carriers).
Today's traveler might salivate on seeing the food once offered by American, Continental, Delta, National, Northwest Orient, Pan American, Trans World, United, and Western Airlines on domestic flights. Not only was the choice of carriers greater; the food and drink they served was more abundant and varied.
A 1970 Western Airlines flight from Honolulu to San Francisco included scallops of veal and chilled vichyssoise soup. A 1971 American Airlines flight from San Francisco to New York boasted a brunch of Kaula omelet with filet mignon or crepes lomi lomi. And a 1964 American Airlines menu (bound with gold string) served filet mignon with bordelaise sauce to its San Francisco to Chicago/Detroit passengers.
International trips offered even tastier fare. In 1966, a passenger flying BOAC economy class from London to Tel Aviv enjoyed a lunch of foie gras, fresh Scotch salmon, salad, cheese, fruit and coffee, followed by afternoon tea. And one had only to ask for a complimentary Martini — sweet or dry — and free in-flight cigarettes in plain or filter tip.
TWA travelers flying first class from London to Chicago that year chose their cocktails, whiskies, highballs, or champagne from a menu in the form of a scroll that doubled as a souvenir. Their dinner of curried squab chicken or Maine lobster Newburg began with fresh Malossol caviar, and was capped off with assorted French cheeses, pastries, or ice creams. Dinners with less rarified tastes could substitute a hot dog and malted milk.
The menu collection began with a 1997 gift to Northwestern's Transportation Library from the late George M. Foster, a Northwestern alumnus and Library benefactor. A renowned anthropologist who was a consultant to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, Foster saved the menus from most of his flights from the mid-1950s onward.
The personal, handwritten notes he made on those menus also can be viewed online. Of a Swissair flight from Geneva to New York he took 31 years ago, for example, he wrote: "Best economy meal I can remember."
Viewing the collection — which grows with menu donations as people learn of its existence — can only make weary frequent fliers hunger for the past.
Courtesy: Northwestern University
