June 15, 1901 · Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen · Dinner
Dinner aboard NDL during the express era followed the European tradition: seven to nine courses, served by white-jacketed stewards across two seatings. The first seating was for those who wished to dine and then enjoy the evening’s deck life; the second was for those preferring to dress and dine later in the European tradition.
The blue-tinted harbour scene is signed “TVE 1900” in the lower right corner. The composition — multiple ships in formation under a clouded sky, large overhead lettering — anticipates the heroic style that would define ocean liner posters in the 1910s and 1920s. The watercolour technique, however, remains firmly in the nineteenth-century marine tradition.
NDL’s flagship route in 1901 was Bremen–Southampton–New York, operated by the four-funnel express liners Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and (from June 1901) Kronprinz Wilhelm. The harbour scene shown here, with multiple steamers, tugs, and the company’s large script logo, captures the visual identity NDL was projecting at its peak.
Visual style: Large-format blue-tinted watercolour by signed artist “TVE” (1900).
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.
