Crowdsourcing is big these days, whether it’s through crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter or community-sourced news like Reddit.
Now the New York Public Library (NYPL) is riding the wave to digitize its most delicious records: old menus.
What began in 1900 with the collection of Miss Frank E. Buttolph has since grown to more than 45,000 menus today, making the NYPL's collection one of the largest in the world.
To assist the researchers, writers, and cooks who use them, the NYPL is transcribing each menu to make it digitally searchable — and they’re asking the public to help.
Take a dive into the weird foods we used to eat and learn how you can help with the project.
The NYPL's menus give us insight into what people in the past ate, the prices of different dishes, and what they celebrated.
This 1891 menu is for Christmas dinner at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. It even includes a wine list and musical program.
So far, over 1.3 million dishes have been transcribed from over 17,500 menus. This one commemorates the 100th anniversary of the British evacuating the city of New York on November 25, 1783.
The last shot of the American Revolutionary War was reportedly fired on this day, but this holiday hasn't been observed since 1916.
This 1883 commemoration dinner took place at Delmonico's, which claims to have invented Eggs Benedict and Baked Alaska. This menu features many French items such as roast partridge and pudding à l'impératrice.
Some menus are incredibly artistic, like this cover of a handwritten menu for breakfast at the Sanford House hotel in my home state of Florida.
This 1881 menu starts off strong by featuring Florida oranges and shows that you could order your eggs then exactly like you can at a diner today: Poached, scrambled, boiled, or fried.
This hotel, which was torn down in 1920, was once a vacation spot for President Chester A. Arthur.
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