NYPL Menu Database
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New York Public Library. NYPL Menu Database. New York, NY: New York Public Library, .

Ship name information varies dramatically in this database; it appears that often transcribers are not aware of vessel names versus line names. I did a fair bit of correcting, but missed many others, I'm sure.

This is a great database of menus owned by the New York Public Library. Unfortunately, the metadata associated with the database is poor, causing a lot of information to not be discoverable. I've collected and compiled what I could, and if, in the future, more standardization is brought to vessel names in this database, certainly many more menus can be discovered through it. Regardless, it's a great view of what dining was like at sea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Unfortunately, the metadata associated with these menus is not very good. There is no standard way - or even regular field - for representing vessel names. I pulled vessel names from wherever I could find them. For others, the metadata reflects just the line that the menu came from, even though the ship name is identified on the menu. I didn't have the time to go through and collect vessel data from each menu, so in the end a lot of ship's menus were not included.