On the Menu: Historical Menu Cards (State Library Collection)

This dataset comprises 2,403 images of historical menu cards from the Menükarten-Sammlung of the Berlin State Library, mostly spanning the period from 1880 to approximately 1913. The collection offers a rich visual and cultural archive of dining culture across Europe, capturing the evolution of public restaurants, elite hospitality, and bourgeois social life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The cards originate from diverse contexts: royal and imperial courts (including Kaiser Wilhelm II’s court), private celebrations (weddings, club dinners), major public events (e.g., the opening of the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal and Cologne Cathedral), luxury hotels (e.g., Frankfurter Hof, Hotel Schweizerhof), and transatlantic cruise ships. Many feature intricate designs and illustrations.

Dataset Structure

The dataset consists of a single compressed zip file with directories which are named using the unique identifier PPN of each digitised item. Furthermore, a .csv file containing metadata for each item is provided. The .csv file contains, in the first column, the PPN of each individual digitised item. The metadata for each work has been extracted from METS/MODS files describing the contents and structure of a digital object published in the digitised collections.

本数据集收录柏林国家图书馆（Berlin State Library）馆藏菜单藏品集（Menükarten-Sammlung）中的2403张历史菜单卡片，其年代主要集中于1880年至1913年左右。该藏品集为欧洲饮食文化提供了详实的视觉与文化档案，生动记录了19世纪末至20世纪初公共餐厅、高端接待业以及资产阶级社交生活的演变历程。

这些菜单卡片来源覆盖多元场景：包括皇室与帝国宫廷（含德皇威廉二世（Kaiser Wilhelm II）的宫廷）、私人庆典（婚礼、俱乐部晚宴）、重大公共活动（如北德波罗的海运河（Nord-Ostsee-Kanal）开通仪式、科隆大教堂落成典礼）、豪华酒店（如法兰克福霍夫酒店（Frankfurter Hof）、瑞士酒店（Hotel Schweizerhof））以及跨大西洋邮轮。诸多菜单卡片带有精巧的设计与插图。

数据集结构
本数据集仅包含一个压缩zip文件，其内部目录以每件数字化藏品的唯一标识符PPN命名。此外，还附带一份包含每件藏品元数据的.csv文件，该文件的第一列为每件数字化藏品的PPN。每件作品的元数据均从描述数字化馆藏中发布的数字对象内容与结构的METS/MODS文件中提取得到。