Campus & Beyond A Repository of Meals, from the Everyday to the Exquisite Stories You May Like Alum Taps the Cannabis Market—With a Health-Oriented Twist Preserving Central Park, Manhattan’s Urban Oasis How Cornell’s First President Transformed Higher Education Kroch Library houses thousands of restaurant menus, many collected by a legendary maître d’ at NYC's Waldorf Astoria By Beth Saulnier Among the many treasures in Cornell’s Rare and Manuscript Collections are some 12,000 slices of gustatory life: original copies of menus dating from the mid-19th century onward. They come from establishments far and wide—hometown spots to fancy boîtes, tiki bars to railway cars, ocean liners to family diners. Housed in Kroch Library, the collection—technically several of them, some with specific foci such as airline menus—occupies dozens of storage boxes. Since only a relative handful have been scanned, parsing this culinary treasure trove involves arranging a visit to the reading room, diving in, and exploring. “Menus can help answer so many questions, because they contain so many layers of data,” says Katherine Reagan, the Stern Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts, noting that they’ve informed research by historians, designers, journalists, economists, and more. “They are advertising, so they need to catch the customer’s eye with an appealing design and enticing descriptions. They preserve evidence of what people ate and what foods were popular. They allow researchers to trace the rise and fall of certain food trends, or when the culinary traditions of other regions and cultures of the world first appear in America and in what form.” Menus can help answer so many questions, because they contain so many layers of data. Curator Katherine Reagan About half of Kroch’s menus—some 6,000—stem from a collection originally amassed by hospitality legend Oscar Tschirky and donated to what's now the Nolan School following his death in 1950. Known as “Oscar of the Waldorf,” Tschirky served as maître d’hôtel of NYC’s Waldorf Astoria for an astounding half-century, from 1893 to 1943. “Few ever knew his surname,” the New York Times said in his obituary, “but three generations of travelers and diners-out were flattered because their opulence, their social position, or their public standing entitled them to call this former busboy Oscar, and bask in the expansiveness of his famous genial smile.” About half of Kroch’s menus—some 6,000—stem from a collection originally amassed by hospitality legend Oscar Tschirky, who served as maître d’hôtel of NYC’s Waldorf Astoria for an astounding half-century. The rest come from a variety of sources, including a collection begun by the Hotel School in 1930 and contributions by alumni who’ve amassed them during their travels around the country and the globe. While the bulk are from North America, there are also menus from throughout Europe and as far away as Japan and New Zealand. Reflecting both Tschirky’s interests and the Nolan School’s pedagogy, the menu collection also includes numerous examples from hostelries around the world—not only for regular meal service but for banquets (some of them eye-popping in their Gilded Age opulence) honoring people and organizations. While the bulk are from North America, there are also menus from throughout Europe and as far away as Japan and New Zealand. There are menus from Hotel Ezra Cornell, the school’s annual student-run hospitality conference, as well as those that reflect a bygone era of elegance in travel, including luxe repasts on the Union Pacific Railroad, Pan Am, and Cunard’s White Star Line. Stories You May Like Alum Taps the Cannabis Market—With a Health-Oriented Twist Preserving Central Park, Manhattan’s Urban Oasis “It’s a hidden gem—it’s not talked about as much as it should be,” says Heather Foulks Kolakowski ’00, a Hotelie who’s now on the faculty as a senior lecturer in food and beverage management. “It’s really interesting to go and see the menus, not only from a culinary standpoint but also from an anthropological one. The historical context is really cool—how preferences and tastes change, and also how terminology and phrases that were commonplace in the late 1800s or early 1900s are not common now.” As examples of dishes that once populated menus but have fallen out of favor, Kolakowski cites terrines and aspics, as well as “offal” like chicken livers and sweetbreads. In more recent decades, she notes, Chilean sea bass was widely popular on seafood menus, but nowadays the species is considered endangered. It’s really interesting to go and see the menus, not only from a culinary standpoint but also from an anthropological one. Senior lecturer Heather Foulks Kolakowski ’00 A fan of Cornell’s menu and cookbook collections since her undergrad days, Kolakowski has used the Kroch holdings as a teaching tool in her classes. “The composition of a menu is core to a restaurant,” says Kolakowski, who also holds a degree from the Culinary Institute of America. “What you choose to sell ties in to how your kitchen is set up, how the food is presented on the plate to the guest," Kolakowski continues. "The menu sets the operational standards for a lot of aspects of the restaurant, but it also sets the ambience and expectations that guests have when they come in—the type of paper you use, the colors. Is it in a binder? Does it have pictures? Does it have wine pairings? Does it talk a little about the history of the restaurant? All of those things really add to the guests’ experience.” While many of the menus in the collection are from long-gone local establishments, others represent well-known eateries or chains—from the mass market to the height of elegance. There are examples from IHOP, Chili’s, Long John Silver’s, Olive Garden, Pizza Hut—and from L.A.’s famed Brown Derby, La Tour d’Argent and Maxim’s in Paris, and numerous iconic NYC spots, from the 21 Club to the Russian Tea Room to Tavern on the Green. There are examples from IHOP, Chili’s, Long John Silver’s, Olive Garden, Pizza Hut—and from L.A.’s famed Brown Derby, La Tour d’Argent and Maxim’s in Paris, and numerous iconic NYC spots, from the 21 Club to the Russian Tea Room to Tavern on the Green. “We talk about chefs like Escoffier and Paul Bocuse, and they seem like these mythical figures,” says Aaron Adalja, an associate professor of food and beverage management at the Nolan School who has also used the menu collection in his classes. “But when I can show students a menu from Bocuse’s iconic restaurant in France—when they see that manifested physically—it really drives home the idea of how these chefs shaped modern cuisine.” On top of the pedagogical value, Kolakowski admits that she gets a particular kick out of the prices on century-old menus, with elaborate feasts available for what would now be the cost of a latte. “But I guess it’s all relative,” she says with a laugh. “Back in the day, it was probably a very expensive meal.” (All images courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections.) Published June 9, 2026 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Quizzes & Puzzles Which Cornell Library Are You? Alumni A Cacti Expert’s Vast L.A. Garden Is a Drought-Tolerant Wonder Campus & Beyond 3D-Printed Statues Honor Women in STEM—Including Seven Cornellians