CN 1921 Prairie Menu

At first glance, this menu appears to be in the same series as the ones shown in the past three days, but it does have a couple of differences. Like the others, it has a front-cover painting of a historic scene — Fort Garry, Manitoba, the forerunner of Winnipeg — and a back-cover painting of a contemporary scene — wheat harvesting on the prairie with a steam-powered tractor. Unlike the other menus, neither of these paintings are signed, and the back cover one is particularly crude, so I’m pretty sure they were done in house.

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

The other difference is that a small painting inset on the front cover breaks the precedent of dedicating the front cover exclusively to historical scenes in favor of advertising the Fort Garry Hotel, Canadian National’s hotel in Winnipeg. CN didn’t bother advertising Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier on the Ontario menu, so it seems a bit crass that they added this ad to this menu.

Inside, the menu is dated June 19 — a day after yesterday’s — and was used aboard the same Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association special train. The table d’hôte menu offers halibut, chicken a la Maryland, or roast leg of veal as entrées and rice custard pudding, green apple pie, or ice cream with crushed fruit for dessert.


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