Greetings readers, and welcome back to the Library blog. In its day, the SS United States was the pinnacle of transatlantic transportation. Passengers could travel in style, and enjoy all manner of comforts from air conditioning to news broadcasts. The luxury of the voyage was also present in their dining, as a rich tapestry of food options was presented for each meal. Roughly 55 years ago on a Friday in 1957, passengers on the SS United States were treated to the following menu for their dinner.

This particular menu has a host of delicious and elegantly prepared dishes available. While the quality of this fare would be customary to the richer and more sophisticated guests on board, humbler passengers of average means would no doubt have been elated to see soups, fish, fruits, roasts, entrees, cakes and ice creams all so richly prepared and served together on a single menu. The extra care and specialization put into its cuisine is apparent in the translation of the menu text into German for the convenience of the German guests, and everyone who dined on that particular Friday would no doubt have remembered it prominently – at least until breakfast the next morning. It’s refreshing to see that the SS United States took as much care in feeding its guests as it did in crossing the Atlantic as quickly as it could be done.