Osler Menu for Auction

A menu from a dinner at the Maryland Club for Dr. William Osler is being offered this morning at Bonhams Auctions. It is from the collection of the medical library of James Tait Goodrich, who died of the novel Corona Virus earlier this year. Dr. Goodrich was a surgeon at Montefiore Hospital in New York and was most well-known for performing surgery on conjoined twins.

Dr. Goodrich's collection of medical ephemera was almost as well-known as the surgery. The collection includes works by Vesalius, ephemera from the 17th through the 20th century and an inquiry into smallpox by Edward Jenner. 

However, for me, the highlight is a menu from a dinner at the Maryland Club in honor of Dr. Osler held on May 15, 1903. It has been signed by Harvey Cushing, W.S. Thayer, Llewellys Barker, William Wood Russel, Egerton Davis, Jr. (Osler's alias), JMT Finney, and many more. 

The menu is printed with inspiring quotes, such as "promptness is the one quality of a physician necessary for success," and "The word of action is stronger than the word of speech." The latter is a "quote" from Egerton Yorrick Davis, Osler's alter-ego.

The actual menu is similar to many of the others of the same period, starting with olives, almonds and radishes, then little neck clams, soft shell crabs and cucumbers, saddle of lamb, Purée Mongole (a creamed split pea soup), Smithfield ham, lettuce and tomatoes, with strawberries and ice cream for dessert. Of course, all of the courses were accompanied by cocktails, sauternes, sherry, champagne and liqueurs.

In checking Harvey Cushing's "Life of Sir William Osler," it appears that the dinner was the night after the end of the American Physicians conference held in Washington, DC from May 12-15 under the presidency of his old Montreal friend, James Stewart. 

This makes a fascinating backstory to a wonderful piece of Osler ephemera. 

Update: The menu sold for $7,500, plus a 27.5% buyer's premium and applicable local taxes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

All of our very best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Menu

Most of our menus date back to the 1800’s or the earliest decades of the 1900’s, but here is one that is from the mid-1900’s. It’s from the 30th Annual Meeting of the Society of Neurological Surgeons on June 10, 1949 at the Maryland Club.

In searching our archives, I found a paper crumpled and wrapped around a printing die that was used for the cover of a program.

After I un-crumpled it, and found the die inside, I flattened out the paper and discovered another menu.

In the 40 years between the 1909 menu and this one from 1949, things have changed dramatically. Cigars, cigarettes, wine and liquor are all gone. However, the starter of celery and olives remains.

I cleaned up the print from the die so that we could use it for a current meeting of the Neurological Surgeons, held earlier this summer. The turtle is the Maryland Terrapin and the bird is the Johns Hopkins Blue Jay.

I wonder if olives and celery was a MedChi tradition or whether it was common at one point in time?

Roman Punch

As I search through our archives, I frequently find old menus from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Occasionally, there’s a term that I’ve never heard before, like Saratoga Chips, or Cardinal Punch.

This menu, from the dedication of the library in the new Cathedral Street building in 1909, features a drink called Roman Punch. It’s served, with Pall Mall cigarettes, as an intermission between the courses, each of which feature their own alcoholic drinks, including Sherry, Champagne, Hock (a German white wine) and assorted liqueurs.

According to an article by Amanda Hesser from the New York Times, this drink was very popular in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It’s lemon and orange juice, with champagne and rum, topped by meringue. Here’s the general recipe:

1 cup of lemonade
Juice of an orange
4 oz. of Champagne
4 oz. of Rum
One egg white
1.5 cup of 10x sugar

Mix the lemonade, orange juice, Champagne and rum and chill, or freeze until slushy. Make a meringue from the egg whites and sugar. Fill a Champagne couple/saucer with the chilled punch and float a meringue island on top.

Another recipe I’ve seen calls for lemon sorbet, rum, brandy, Curaçao and champagne and is served in hollowed out oranges.

By 1922, manners expert Emily Post had declared it “unknown except at a public dinner, or in the dining-room of a parvenu.”

MedChi Menus

As I was searching our archives, I found numerous references to various parties and events which MedChi and its members had hosted through the years. Certainly what we ate then and what we eat now are completely different. And of course, what we know about healthy eating, drinking and lifestyles is diametrically opposed to what we thought and did 100+ years ago.

MedChi’s 100th Anniversary in 1899 was celebrated with dinners, lectures, commemorative programs and more. This is the invitation for the Opening of the Centennial Ceremonies.
Here’s an invitation to the Annual Address and reception.
And the big invitation – to the Centennial Dinner at the old Hotel Rennert.
This is the menu from the dinner. It featured many Maryland specialties of the day, including Turtle Soup (most likely Maryland Terrapin) and Crab Salad. The Saratoga Chips are actually a predecessor of what we now know as regular potato chips.
In addition to the dinner, there is wine with every course, and then breaks for cigarettes and cigars.  There’s a reference to Cardinal Punch which is made with claret, brandy, dark rum, champagne, orange slices, and pineapple slices! How anyone would even be able to make it through the remaining courses after that is quite beyond me!
In a small program from the “Monthly Medical Reunion, Founded in 1881” dated January, 1956, the 75th Anniversary of the group, there are several paragraphs discussing the food at these meetings, which were held at private homes. To quote J. A. Chatard, M.D.:

As you know, the original founders entertained with a late supper to be enjoyed after a hard day’s work. Then, as close friends, intimate and lively discussions could take place, accompanied by some delicious food, that each member prized as originating in his kitchen, under the supervision of a devoted wife, and the “old bandana crowned” cook who felt her corn pone, beaten biscuits, spoon bread, muffins and Sally Lunn much better than other cooks.
There was always one “Specialite de la maison” looked forward to by all the members. In those days, our seafood was varied and delicious, with oysters in many ways (pickled was a special dish), fish, crabs and occasionally the rules were broken by terrapin, slipping in through the door. Games was plentiful also, and not expensive. Quail, grouse and prairie chicken [a large grouse, now extinct] could be found on the table hot (broiled or stewed with celery) or even more delicious, when covered by a thick gelatinous gravy, solidified and covering the tender meat.
Another dish (Specialite) was a mound of calf’s head, with sweetbreads around the base, and the calf’s eyes decorating the top. The cold dish at the other end of the table was so-called “hogs-head cheese” requiring some days to prepare, the finished product being a clear gelatinous mound showing the piece of pork through the jellied dish.
In those days, the food was usually accompanied by different wines, sherry, claret, burgundy or port– no champagne, but sometimes an old Madeira would sneak in.

Nowdays, our menus are a little tamer with each committee having their favorite dinner on order.