Years ago I started collecting menus from some of my favorite restaurants. Now they adorn the walls of my guest bathroom.
Menus give us an interesting snapshot of what life was like when a particular menu was in use. When looking at old menus people often focus on the prices but menus also tell us what made up a typical meal as well as the sometimes exotic foods that were offered. For example, a menu in my collection from the Hotel Del Coronado for Easter 1907 offered Broiled Barracuda as one of the entrees:
But I am not the only person who has a menu collection. In fact, one woman who started collecting menus on January 1, 1900 collected over 25,000 menus in her day. Her collection now resides in the New York Public Library. Who was she? Her name was Frank Editha Bottolph and she lived from 1844 until 1924. Before we dive into her menu collection, let's see what we can "dig up" about the woman with the unusual name and unusual hobby.
Frank Buttolph was born Frances Editha Buttles in 1844 in Mansfield, Pennsylvania to Reuben Parmenter Buttles (1817-1893) and Frances Amanda Wheeler (1815-1890). Reuben and Frances had been married on July 25, 1843 in Mansfield. Frank had a sister, Parmelia Ernstiel Buttles (1849-1875). For clarity, I will refer to Frances Editha as "Frank" to differentiate her from her mother.
The first record of Frank Buttles is in the 1850 US Census for Richmond Township, Ostego County, Pennsylvania. The family consisted of R.P. Buttles (34 years old), Amanda (35), Frances (5) and Parmelia (1). R.P. listed his occupation as "Wagon Maker." He said the family owned Real Estate worth $500.00. Frances was listed as being "In School."
The 1860 US Census shows the Buttles family as still living in Mansfield, in the Cherry Flats Post Office district. The family consisted of R.P. (43), Amanda (45), Frances (15) and Parmelia (11). In addition, 33 year old John Dangman, a "Cabinet Maker," lived with the family. R.P. still listed his occupation as "Wagon Maker." Now the family reported Real Estate of $5,000.00 and Personalty of $500.00.
In 1865 Frank graduated from the Genesee College and Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, New York:
The 1870 US Census shows Frank still living with her family in Mansfield. The family consisted of: Reuben (53), Amanda (55), and Frances (25). In addition, a 25 year old teacher, Marie Otis, lived with the family. Reuben said listed his occupation as "Wagon Boxes," and Frank said she was a "Teacher." Frank's sister Parmelia was also a Teacher, but she was living with a family in Montrose, Pennsylvania.
On July 8, 1874, Frank's sister Parmelia married Edward P. Balch in Shakopee, Minnesota. One year later, on July 14, 1875 Parmelia Buttles Balch died giving birth to her daughter Miriam Ellen Balch. Parmelia was twenty-six years old. The Mansfield (PA) Advertiser printed an obituary of Parmelia in their edition of July 28, 1875:
Parmelia is buried in the Valley Cemetery in Shakopee, Minnesota:
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| Photo courtesy of volunteer xandismother |
Only Sister
We don't know when Francis Editha Buttles began calling herself "Frank" but it was before Parmelia died in 1875 because the obituary refers to "Frank" in several places.
I was unable to find Frank in the 1880 US Census but I did find her parents, still in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. Frank is not living with her parents at the time of the 1880 Census. Interestingly her father now lists his occupation as "Wagon Maker and Undertaker."
About this same time Reuben Buttles began practicing medicine in Mansfield, but the fact is that he had no medical degree or degree of any kind according to the Wellsboro (PA) Gazette from January 3, 1882. He was one of a group of "doctors" who would no longer be able to practice medicine after the Pennsylvania Legislature passed a law that required that anyone who practiced medicine was required to "be a graduate of a legally chartered medical college or university having the authority to confer the degree of doctor of medicine..."
In 1887, after working as a teacher in New Jersey, Kentucky, and Delaware, Frank settled in Manhattan. The Mansfield (PA) Advertiser reported a visit back to see her parents "Dr. and Mrs. Buttles" in their edition of June 27, 1888:
By 1893 Frank's father Reuben Buttles was an inmate of the county insane asylum according to the Mansfield (PA) Advertiser from August 30, 1893 who reported his escape from the institution. He died late in 1893 in Mansfield. I was unable to find any burial information for either he or his wife.
In 1900 Frank changed her last name to “Buttolph” after discovering that “Buttles” was a recent corruption of her ancestral name. However, I was unable to find Frank in the 1900 US Census under either "Buttles" or "Buttolph."
Now we come to her famous menu collection. Frank liked to say that she started collecting restaurant menus on January 1, 1900 at the Columbia Restaurant in New York. She said when she saw a menu that was dated with the new century she was struck by the sight, and saved it. But that probably wasn’t true, since her vast collection appears to have begun several years earlier. The New York Public Library, which now archives many of Buttolph’s menus, even states that she first contacted them about her collection a year prior, in 1899.
No matter when she actually started, by 1900 she had amassed a significant number of menus and the New York Public Library agreed to accept her collection. Her desire to amass as many menus as possible only grew from there. She began volunteering at the Astor Library and ultimately at the New York Public Library, where she spent much of her time over the next 20 years. As is the case with most collectors, she didn't do anything half-way. Frank dove head first into obtaining as many menus for her collection as possible. She sent out hundreds of letters to restaurants, transportation companies, chambers of commerce, government agencies, and newspaper editors to solicit donations. The letters went out to establishments across the United States and Europe. Frank's years of teaching languages came in handy as she was able to address her letters in French and German when requesting menus from non-English speaking countries.
The Columbia Restaurant menu:
Frank made sure that every menu was stamped as being part of her collection.
To attract ever more contributions, she took out ads in magazines such as Hotel Gazette, did numerous newspaper interviews, and enlisted aides to collect on her behalf—some of whom continued sending her menus for decades. It was said about Frank that she “frequently barged into private banquets at the city’s fanciest dining establishments and demanded a copy of their printed menu.”
Frank Buttolph’s commitment to collecting menus came, she said, from her desire to preserve early 1900s culinary history for future scholars. As word of her collection spread, articles began appearing in local newspapers. Here is an article from the Brooklyn (NY) Life of January 24, 1903:
And even a satirical writeup from the Buffalo (NY) News of November 25, 1903:
The New York Times published an expansive article about her collection on May 22, 1904:
The Brooklyn (NY) Life from May 09, 1908 reported a tremendous addition to Frank's collection:
Frank was a meticulous collector—not only in transcribing, dating, and organizing her menus with a detailed card catalog, but also about how they should be stored. When the director of the Library tried to rubber-band menus together, she pushed back out of worry that it would leave marks.
As you can imagine, Frank Buttolph had her detractors as well. The New York Times called her an “unostentatious, literary-looking lady whose bugaboo is a possible spot upon one of her precious menus.” In a March 1905 article, The Literary Collector noted that the public initially regarded her as “a rather tiresome freak” who was wasting “a vast amount of energy … that might have been expended better.”
Staying true to form, I was unable to find Frank Buttolph (or Buttles) in either the 1910 or 1920 US Census.
Unfortunately, the same idiosyncrasies that made Frank a committed archivist also alienated her from her coworkers, who failed to understand her mission. Her reportedly disruptive tirades against everything from whistling to untidy desks eventually resulted in her dismissal from the library in 1923. Her last record came in the form of a letter to the library administration, in which she wrote, “For many years my library work has been the only thing I had to live for. It was my heart, my soul, my life. Always before me was the vision of students of history who would say ‘thank you’ to my name and memory.”
On February 27, 1924 Frank Buttolph died alone of pneumonia in Bellevue Hospital. She was 80 years old. Her death record incorrectly lists her year of birth as 1854 when it was in reality 1844 as proven by her appearing on the 1850 US Census.
Frank Buttolph is buried in St. Michael's Cemetery in East Elmhurst, Queens County, New York. It is owned and operated by St. Michael’s Church, an Episcopal congregation located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I emailed St. Michael's to ask for the location of Frank's grave so I could make arrangements to have the grave photographed. I received a response from Rita Gambino of St. Michael's:
The grave location is Trinity Church Plot – Range 5 - Grave 33.
This was an old church plot and there is no marker at the gravesite. There are no others interred within the grave with her.
The only living relative Frank would have had would have been her niece, Parmelia's daughter Miriam Balch, but it is unknown whether or not they had any contact. Miriam would have been 49 years old in 1924.
Frank Editha Buttolph - her menus were her life. May she rest in peace.
Today, the Buttolph Collection of Menus at the New York Public Library offers more than 40,000 menus to scholars interested in food, restaurant, and cultural history.
If you wish to examine Frank Buttolph's menu collection for yourself, you can view 19,272 of her menus here:
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-buttolph-collection-of-menus#/?tab=about
Additional information about Frank Buttolph and her menu collection can be found at:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/frank-buttolph-menu-new-york-public-library-collection
As you can imagine, finding information on Frank Buttolph was extremely difficult. Much of the information I reported was collected from these two sources.
