TL;DR — This is an original dinner — bremen to america service menu from Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, September 27, 1888, preserved in the Buttolph Collection at The New York Public Library. The embossed gold cover with its sailing-ship medallion and decorative ribbon banners reflects the high-Victorian printing aesthetic of the 1880s. Restored and reformatted at 300 DPI, it prints as archival wall art in three sizes.
By The Menu Press · Published October 2026
The menu itself
Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, September 27, 1888. This menu predates NDL’s famous express liners by nearly a decade. Crossings in 1888 took ten to twelve days. First-class dining was already elaborate — French in style despite the German ownership — but speed and route reliability were still NDL’s main selling points over luxury.
Who made it, and when
1888 was a pivotal year for NDL: the company had just finished modernizing its fleet for express service. The Bremen–America route had become Germany’s primary western emigration channel — between 1880 and 1914 NDL alone carried more than two million emigrants to the United States.
What the cover does
The embossed gold cover with its sailing-ship medallion and decorative ribbon banners reflects the high-Victorian printing aesthetic of the 1880s. Heavy embossing, gold ink, and rectangular layouts with framed central images were standard for premium commercial stationery of this decade.
Framing and placement
Printed at 300 DPI, the card reads well at every size we offer. The 16×20 anchors a wall on its own; the 11×14 works in a multi-menu grouping; the 8×10 suits a shelf or a narrow space.
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–America Service · 1888 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, September 27, 1888, 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?
1888 was a pivotal year for NDL: the company had just finished modernizing its fleet for express service. The Bremen–America route had become Germany’s primary western emigration channel — between 1880 and 1914 NDL alone carried more than two million emigrants to the United States.
Further reading
- The Golden Age of Ocean Liner Dining, 1880-1930
- The Buttolph Collection: A Curator’s Guide
- See the print: Norddeutscher Lloyd · Bremen–America Service · 1888
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.