We’ve previously seen Northern Pacific and Rio Grande menus featuring a photograph glued on to their front covers. Here is a similar menu from the Burlington Route. Gluing on a photo gives a slight three-dimensional quality to the cover, but I think the real reason for doing so was that the printing technologies of the day made printing photos directly on menu cover stock difficult, especially if the cover stock wasn’t white.

Click image to download a 711-KB PDF of this menu.

The back of the menu is a lengthy advertising for vacationing in Colorado: “the mountains”; the “wonderful summer climate”; the “diversity of attractions”; and the “many places of accommodations” were especially noted. The menu is undated, but the back cover makes no mention of the Denver Zephyr, which began operating in 1936. Since Northern Pacific began its glued-on photo series in about 1935, I’ll date this menu to that year as well.

Inside is an a la carte breakfast menu. The shadow of a paper clip that was once fastened to the front cover suggests a table d’hôte insert was once included, but it has been lost or separated from this menu.