June 16, 1901 · Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen · Lunch
Lunch aboard NDL Far East liners often featured local ingredients picked up during port calls. Ceylon menus might include curries, fresh tropical fruit, and specially prepared tea. The exotic cover would have functioned as a souvenir reminder of one of the more atmospheric ports on the route.
The watercolour shows a beach with palm trees, distant hills, and a single workboat — a classical European travel-impression of the tropics. The composition is conventional but the colours capture Ceylon’s hazy, humid coastal light convincingly.
NDL’s reach extended well beyond the North Atlantic. By 1901 the company also operated regular service to East Asia, Australia, and Indian Ocean ports, including Colombo on the island of Ceylon. The Ceylon route was a critical coaling and crew-change station for the Bremen–Yokohama mail run.
Visual style: Watercolour cover depicting a tropical coast — Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka).
What you receive
- Three print sizes: 8×10, 11×14, 16×20 inches (300 DPI, ready for any home printer or framing shop).
- Two versions of each size: a pure print (no added text) and a museum print (with a small caption: restaurant or ship, year, and source).
- A 1–2 page PDF with the menu’s historical context.
- One ZIP file, instantly downloadable after checkout.
About the source
This menu is preserved in the Buttolph Collection of Menus at The New York Public Library and is in the public domain in the United States. The Menu Press has curated, digitally restored, and reformatted the work for modern printing.
