a rather tiresome freak

Frances Editha Buttles, Frank E. Buttolph and restaurant menus

Jul 27, 2026

∙ Paid

Within a few years of collecting her menus, Francis was already thinking about archiving them with a library (image via The New York Public Library)

Apologies to my paid subscribers — this was supposed to be sent out on Friday! But I was (and still am) battling a pretty gnarly case of COVID-19. Drink your Emergen-C and stay safe out there, folks!

Buzzard Bay oysters. Green turtle á la Anglaise. Saddle of Canada Mutton. Milk pig. Frozen egg nog, served midway through the meal.

Those were some of the options served in 1906 at the Park Avenue Hotel, as part of the house restaurant’s special New Year’s Day dinner. And today we can review this menu, along with thousands of others, thanks to the obsessive collecting of Frances Edith Buttles, later known as Frank E. Buttolph.

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