The University of Houston has increased its digital offerings in recent years to allow visitors to make their way through everything from home retail pamphlets from the 1920s to copper plate engravings from Theodor de Bry's "Grandes Voyages." This particular collection offers users access to 80 different menus from the 1850s and 1860s. The menus are taken from establishments that were located all...

This online exhibition from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas offers a glimpse into the history and development of menus. This site begins with a brief history of restaurant menus, which proffers an overview of the history of the restaurant, early restaurants in America, the origins of the menu, and a short treatise on early menu format and structure. Unsurprisingly, the menu was likely invented...

If you are hungry, it may not behoove you to spend too much time on this website. On the other hand, it might offer up a bit of inspiration for a new culinary exploration. In short, the New York Public Library has digitized over 17,000 historic menus containing over 1.2 million dishes. It's a gastronome's feast and anyone with a penchant for cookery will be delighted to learn of its existence....