Need ideas for recipes or menus? Get those ideas, and help the NY Public Library at the same time. Here's how.

Go here: http://menus.nypl.org/about

Read aboout the massive (40,000) collection of menus and how we can help bring those menus into the digital age.

Sardine sandwiches, anchovy sandwiches and mutton were on a lot of menus circa 1900; on the menu I'm working on, Mallard duck is listed at $1.25 ($.75 for half) and Teal duck is listed at $.75 for the whole bird.

Click through the menus to find those that give brief descriptions of offerings, instead of just listing the name of the dish and the price.

It beats playing solitaire while waiting for the next foodpickle to arrive.

betteirene
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4 Comments

sarah K.
sarah K. April 23, 2011
That's super fun (for geeks like us!), but it seems to have trouble with the handwritten menus. Every time I click on one, it says there's an internal problem. The typewritten ones are easy, so I try to do the handwritten ones, since I have experience with transcribing censuses and 19th century texts, but it just won't let me.
 
betteirene
betteirene April 23, 2011
It was in the papers a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot all about it until I heard a blurb on NPR this morning on the way to work.
 
mrslarkin
mrslarkin April 23, 2011
that is so cool!! where did I see this very recently??
 
Sam1148
Sam1148 April 22, 2011
I'm not sure what to post here. But here's a suggestion that might make the project go 'viral'.

Post it to http://boingboing.net/

They are not foodies on the that site. But very much interested in archiving and promoting Library projects.
 
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