Frederick Hill Meserve., Abraham Lincoln Centenary Menu & Photo (O-50B)

Description

The New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion celebrated the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth with a banquet at Delmonico’s (recently restored and the oldest restaurant in America) in New York City where the members received a commemorative menu entitled Abraham Lincoln: The Celebration of the Centenary of Lincoln’s Birth… This is the souvenir and the menu from the event. 

Each of the menus contains an original portrait of President Abraham Lincoln from the glass plate, produced and hand-mounted by Frederick Hill Meserve. Meserve, the son of a veteran, was a Second Class Companion of the New York MOLLUS.

The original Meserve albumen photo (8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″) depicts President-elect Lincoln sitting for Alexander Gardner at Mathew Brady’s Washington, D. C. studio on February 24, 1861. It is cataloged as Ostendorf-50B or Meserve-68.

The menu also includes a printing of the Gettysburg Address. The program featured as speakers General Horace Porter, Journalist and Lincoln associate Horace White, Dr. Charles Leale who attended Lincoln at Ford’s Theater, and General James Grant Wilson. Delmonico’s provided a radish and celery slaw, sweetbreads with green beans, vol au vent a la Parisienne with French peas, a salad and a dessert of ice cream. Coffee with fruit and cheese topped the feast. The Martinis and Cognac are presumed.

Lightly toned with minor spotting on the boards; binding still solid; decorative ribbon still fully intact. The page on which the photo is mounted is wrinkled as is usual. The device on the title page is unusually bright and handsome. Overall very good condition.

MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION (N.Y.) Abraham Lincoln: The Celebration of the Centenary of Lincoln’s Birth by the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Delmonico’s, NY, February 3, 1909. Limited edition, 450 copies, portrait on cover, Monaghan-1814). (Ostendorf-50B, Meserve-68).