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Menu Archives
The Cornell Library began collecting menus in the 1940's, thanks to a large donation by Oscar Tschirky, who served as maitre d'hotel of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, from 1893 to 1943. The menu collection resides in Cornell's Rare & Manuscripts Collection in Kroch Library, where menus can be viewed by appointment.
If you are looking for a digital collection, The New York Public Library has an extensive collection of menus. With approximately 45,000 menus dating from the 1840s to the present, The NYPL restaurant menu collection is one of the largest in the world, used by historians, chefs, novelists and everyday food enthusiasts.