The museum recently received an exciting addition to its archival collections: 4,500 menus from restaurants across the United States and abroad. The menus were collected by Virginia Mericle throughout the 1960s-1990s. Virginia passed away in 2009, and her daughter, Vanessa Henderson, donated the collection last year.
Virginia Mericle (left) collected 4,500 menus
Virginia was a life-long collector. As a star-struck sixteen year old, she would write to movie studios and request photographs of actors. Bing Crosby, John Wayne, and Dean Martin were a few of her favorite stars. She received many replies; some of the pictures were even signed by the stars themselves.
After marrying and having children, Mrs. Mericle developed agoraphobia and gradually stopped venturing outside her home. Yet she remained very connected to the outside world—through the mail. To satiate her love for celebrity gossip and Hollywood, Virginia subscribed to tabloid magazines. Vanessa recalls her mother being very knowledgeable about the world. Despite never graduating from high school, Virginia would spend time each day solving the New York Times’ crossword.
Requesting a menu.
[Note: All photos courtesy of Virginia Mericle Menu Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.]
Virginia also began sending postcards to various restaurants, requesting a copy of their menu. Many obliged, and often included a personal letter or invitation in their response. Vanessa remembers being involved in this hobby. When she was ten, her mother would send her to the post office, located half a mile away, to buy more postcards. When the mail was delivered, Virginia would show her children the return addresses: Los Angeles, New York, Honolulu, and beyond.
Personal note from The Lotus in Bethesda, Maryland
To this day, it remains a mystery how Virginia located the restaurants’ addresses. Before the Internet and without family or friends around the globe, Virginia succeeded at accumulating thousands of menus from different types of restaurants. Many of these are from the same establishment, but are dated a few years apart. Craig Orr, who acquired the objects, recognized that this collection offers a rare, first-hand glimpse into how diets, prices, and foodstyles may have changed.
Luau Hut lunch menu with note
Interestingly, Virginia seems to have taken little interest in the actual menus, and merely sorted them into American and international piles. Furthermore, the influx of menus had no impact on the family’s culinary habits. It is quite possible that Virginia simply wanted to feel connected to the outside world, and accomplished this goal through mail correspondence. Perhaps her experience with the movie studios taught her to select institutions that would readily respond to impersonal mail solicitations.
Menus from Hawaii (left) and Texas (right)
The collection is a significant addition to the museum archives, and is already being studied in anticipation of future exhibitions.
Editor’s Note: What do you collect? How might your collection be a window into American history?
Devora Liss is an intern at the National Museum of American History.
I am not a collector per se (I try to get rid of stuff, not collect it), but as a not-completely-housebound agoraphobic, I suppose one could say that I collect blogs. The internet enables me to form "fake" relationships with many people and keep connected to the world of ideas.
Posted by: Jude | June 05, 2011 at 02:11 PM
My particular foible was and still is collecting football programs. People consider you sad, but really you are collecting memories of the stadia / cities visited. Each one points to a particular time in your past. Absolutely priceless.
Posted by: Al Wyles | June 01, 2011 at 06:04 AM
Like a previous poster, I collect travel memorabilia, but mine is refrigerator magnets. They take up a small amount of space and provide great memories of my travels. Besides, my grandchildren like to play with them when they come over.
I would like to see the menus though, that would be cool.
Posted by: Retta | May 31, 2011 at 09:48 PM
When I was younger I collected baseball hats. I wouldn't just go to any store and purchase the hat... the hat had to be bought in the city the team played in.
Currently, i have a collection of around 30 hats from places my family and friends have traveled to. Each hat is linked with a fond story and memory of that person or my trip.
Posted by: Julie | May 16, 2011 at 07:49 AM
Please consider digitizing these menus and cooperating with the NYPL What's on the Menu? task force (http://menus.nypl.org/) to get them transcribed.
Posted by: Susanne | May 13, 2011 at 02:48 AM