November 3, 1905 · U.S.S. Maine · Honorary Dinner held by Chief Petty Officers
Chief Petty Officers’ dinners aboard U.S. Navy capital ships of the era were formal social occasions celebrating the senior enlisted leadership. Such dinners were modelled on British Royal Navy traditions, with a fixed sequence of toasts, multi-course menus, and preserved-as-keepsake menu cards signed by attendees.
The cover features a circular photographic medallion of the battleship at sea, framed by an embossed border with crossed American and naval flags. Naval menu covers of this period are now rare collectors’ items — particularly for ships connected, even by name, to major historical events.
The U.S.S. Maine (BB-10) was a U.S. Navy pre-dreadnought battleship launched 1901, the second ship of the name. (The first U.S.S. Maine, an armoured cruiser, was destroyed in Havana Harbour in 1898 — “Remember the Maine!” became the rallying cry of the Spanish-American War.) The new Maine of 1901 was part of the Atlantic Fleet and joined the Great White Fleet’s around-the-world cruise of 1907–1909.
Visual style: Embossed cover with photographic medallion of the ship; ribbon and crossed-flags ornament.
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.
