The Library Company is delighted to announce the acquisition of a generous gift from a longtime friend and shareholder. The William Woys Weaver Collection of Culinary Ephemera consists of more than 5,500 items representing Dr. Weaver’s decades of collecting and studying culinary history and foodways, particularly of the southeastern Pennsylvania region. Dating primarily from the long 19th and 20th centuries, the collection includes trade cards, menus, labels, advertisements, postcards, bills of lading, comic valentines, cookbooks, and more, all shedding light on our relationship with the food we cultivate, consume, and celebrate. With this gift, the Library Company solidifies its role as an essential resource for those studying culinary history.

The Library Company has long had a relationship with culinary history and Dr. Weaver, who collaborated with us and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in the creation of the 1986-1987 exhibition The Larder Invaded: Reflections on Three Centuries of Philadelphia Food and Drink and the accompanying recipe book. The thirty-five featured historical recipes formed the basis of the popular Library Company blog post series penned by former staff member Katie Maxwell as she “stressed baked” during the pandemic. In the spring of 2022 Weaver and Maxwell joined forces for the Library’s first in-person post-pandemic seminar, Philadelphia at the Table: Treasures of the Larder Invaded. The rich material that influenced this past scholarship is represented within the Weaver Collection of Culinary Ephemera.

We are now in the early stages of going through twenty-eight boxes filled with an astonishing array of items. From lunch counter fare to Chinese restaurants to elaborate testimonial dinners, menus of all sorts are found in abundance. Notice the Locust Street address on this 1930s menu—the restaurant stood where the Library Company’s building is today. The China Moon was in business for decades and can be seen in this 1960 photograph from our archives showing our future location.

Banquets with a dazzling range of food and drinks held to honor local politicians, businessmen, national celebrities and others took place in some of Philadelphia’s most elegant spaces. The Bellevue Stratford Hotel frequently hosted these celebratory gatherings, including an October 22, 1927 banquet fêting aviator Charles Lindbergh who earlier that year had flown solo across the Atlantic Ocean. From July 20 through October 23, 1927, Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis 22,000 miles across the United States, visiting 92 cities in 48 states promoting aviation. Although it is unlikely that the William Penn statue doffed its hat as seen on this banquet program, Lindbergh did fly several loops around the City Hall tower. The Bellevue Stratford public banquet included local delicacies such as turtle soup and stewed snapper “Philadelphia style” and was followed by another private dinner tendered by Philadelphia men interested in aviation. Not surprisingly, the Reading Eagle reported the next day that “Col. Lindbergh seemed tired.”

Philadelphia’s United States Hotel hosted an elaborate banquet for another intrepid traveler, Captain B. R. Matthews who was at the helm of the steamship City of Glasgow on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to Philadelphia. The ship left England on December 11, 1850 but encountered such rough weather the journey took 22 days, more than a week longer than expected. As can be seen on the bill of fare, Matthews’s leadership was celebrated a few weeks after his arrival at a dinner with an astonishing array of cold and hot meal choices. Among the sumptuous plates of food, “Pieces Montees,” decorative confectionary pieces sculpted in the shape of the steamship, allegorical figures, and exotic buildings adorned the banquet tables.

Examples of advertisements for food products capitalizing on the familiar local tropes of Benjamin Franklin, Quakers, the Liberty Bell, and William Penn to encourage sales are also amply represented within this collection. Who could resist purchasing and eating Penn Treaty lima beans when they came in a can adorned with a portrait of Pennsylvania’s proprietor?

Delightful surprises abound in each box of the William Woys Weaver Collection of Culinary Ephemera. We are grateful for Dr. Weaver’s generosity.