April 2, 1901 · Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen · Speisenfolge — the German formal term for a multi-course menu
“Speisenfolge” — literally “sequence of dishes” — was the standard German term for the formal dinner menu used aboard NDL ships. The structure followed the European multi-course tradition: hors d’oeuvre, soup, fish, entrée, roast with vegetables, salad, dessert, cheese, and coffee.
The cover painting depicts an NDL express liner running through a long Atlantic sunset. The warm orange–brown horizon, smooth long-period swell, and reflective ocean surface place the image firmly in late nineteenth-century academic marine painting tradition. NDL commissioned marine artists annually for new cover series.
By 1901 Norddeutscher Lloyd was at the height of its express-liner era. The company’s Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, launched 1897, had taken the Blue Riband for Germany. NDL was preparing the launch of three more express liners in 1901–1903 — Kronprinz Wilhelm, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Kronprinzessin Cecilie. NDL and HAPAG together would carry roughly half of all transatlantic passenger traffic by 1910.
Visual style: Colour lithograph; steamship at sunset, NDL identification in script.
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.
