TL;DR — This is an original lunch menu from Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, June 16, 1901, preserved in the Buttolph Collection at The New York Public Library. The watercolour shows a beach with palm trees, distant hills, and a single workboat — a classical European travel-impression of the tropics. Restored and reformatted at 300 DPI, it prints as archival wall art in three sizes.
By The Menu Press · Published October 2026
The card, precisely
Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, June 16, 1901. 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 company behind the card
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.
The design, element by element
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.
On the wall
The soft, illustrative cover sits well in warmer rooms. Cream or linen matting flatters the period paper tone; a slim dark-wood or antique-brass frame keeps the focus on the artwork. The 11×14 and 16×20 sizes both work framed and matted.
A simple frame and a generous mat let the original printing — the ink, the paper tone, the period typography — carry the room. Hung as a pair or in a chronological sweep with other cards from the same line, a single menu becomes a small history of dining at sea.
Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen · Ceylon · 1901 is available as an instant download in three print sizes (8×10, 11×14, 16×20) at 300 DPI, each in a pure and a museum-labelled version. View the full print →
Frequently asked questions
Is this an original historic menu or a modern reproduction?
It is an original historic menu — a single card from Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, June 16, 1901, held in the Buttolph Collection at The New York Public Library and digitised at high resolution. We restore and reformat the scan for modern printing; the underlying artwork is the period original.
What print size works best?
The 16×20 inch print is the boldest single-wall choice and reads from across a room. The 11×14 suits a grouping of several menus; the 8×10 fits a shelf or a tight space. All three ship at 300 DPI.
What was Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen?
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.
Further reading
- The Golden Age of Ocean Liner Dining, 1880-1930
- The Buttolph Collection: A Curator’s Guide
- See the print: Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen · Ceylon · 1901
The Menu Press curates, digitally restores, and reformats public-domain menus from the Buttolph Collection of Menus, The New York Public Library, for archival-quality printing as wall art. Browse the archive · Read our story.