Project Editor: Timothy Auten, History 470: Digital History, Spring 2008

Food

If good food is the way to a person's heart, America in the late 1800s was full of such traffic. One of the distinguishing features of this Gilded Age was the abundance of food in America. Even most poor workers had an abundance of food available to them, though it was not as varied or fine as that the rich could afford. Food choice for the American upper class followed the trends and styles of French cooking at the time. Banquets were of particular importance, and rich families would hold dinners for their friends as often as they could, and nearly every formal function had an associated banquet. Meals for such occasions consisted of many courses, sometimes a dozen or more, with a variety of options. Main dishes were typically game fowl, often duck or quail, and appetizers were usually of a seafood variety, with oysters being a favorite. Particularly exclusive was lettuce, since iceberg lettuce was not yet produced and lettuce of the time rotted quickly (Schrock, 111).

Nebraska State Journal, c. 1895

The above image is a scan of a newspaper article written just after the 1895 commencement, towards the end of the Gilded Age. The image is a scan of only a single part of the article, and the lower half talks directly on point about a graduation banquet. It is useful for connecting UNL Commencement to the high class society of the Gilded Age for two reasons. The first reason is simply the existence of this part of the article; the fact that the banquet was written about indicates its importance to the readership of the newspaper it was written for, in this case Nebraska citizens. The second reason is found in the specific listing of menu choices for the banquet. Mentioned in this menu are many of the items mentioned above, including oysters, shrimp, and lettuce. These item choices and the need to mention them in a newspaper both serve as indicators that UNL Commencement was a function meant for the social interaction of the upper class.