Diego Rivera 1946 Dinner Menu

As an outspoken member of the Communist Party, Diego Rivera and his art became controversial in the United States. But in September 1946, when Fred Harvey issued this menu for its restaurant at St. Louis Union Station, the Cold War hadn’t really begun and many still thought of the Soviet Union as wartime allies.

Click image to download a 1.1-MB PDF of this menu.

This menu is part of Fred Harvey’s Eminent Artists series, which included menus with cover paintings by Thomas Hart Benton, Ivan Albright, and others. The only other menu in this series in my collection is one with a cover painting by Dale Nichols.

St. Louis Union Station wasn’t served by Santa Fe, but I count all Fred Harvey menus as Santa Fe items due to the close relationship between those companies. This menu offers eight different entrées ranging from a vegetable plate with ham fritter for 70¢ to half a spring chicken for $1.30, all of which come with a choice of two items from a list of seven side dishes. There were also sandwiches ranging from peanut butter and jelly for 20¢ to a hot turkey sandwich for 65¢. Multiply prices by 15 to get today’s dollars.


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