Many Canadian National menus have a photo on the front cover and a brief description of the photo on the back. This one is unusual in that it has photos on both front and back covers with no description of either one other than a title.

Click image to download a 2.1-MB PDF of this menu, which was provided by Brian Leiteritz.

The front cover photo shows sailboats in Halifax Harbor. The back cover photo shows Canadian National’s Minaki Lodge in western Ontario. The two locations are more than 2,000 miles apart and have little to do with one another except as potential destinations on a Canadian National train. Continue reading →

We’ve previously seen a 1950 menu card for breakfast aboard the Prince George. This is a 1934 breakfast card for the Prince Rupert.

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The ship was named for its home port, Prince Rupert, which was the western terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific, one of several railroads that went bankrupt and ended up as part of Canadian National Railways. The town was named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine who, among other things, was one of the founders of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Continue reading →

During the Anglo-French War of 1627-1629, the British successfully captured all of Quebec but were unable to take Fort Lomeron, in what is now Nova Scotia. The fort was under the command of Charles de La Tour, whose father, Claude de La Tour, had been “seduced” by the British with promises of land and titles if he could talk his son into giving up the fort. Charles refused and successfully fought off the British when they attacked.

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de La Tour may have been gratified that the treaty that ended the war returned all of the captured lands to France. Of course, it all eventually ended up in British hands anyway, and the celebration by CN, a crown corporation, of the French victory was probably done to pander to the French descendants who still lived in Canada. Continue reading →

Apparently, the first meeting concerning the governance of a British colony in what became Nova Scotia took place aboard a ship, thus continuing the nautical theme of this series of menus. The back of the menu identifies the seven men at the table. However, it is disappointing that this meeting was the most dramatic bit of the history of the Canadian Maritimes that CN could find to portray on one of its menus.

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This menu is dated the same as yesterday’s, June 28, 1934, so it has the same musical selections and foods. The musical programme identifies five pieces with their composers, plus “selection from ‘Madame Butterfly'” without listing the composer, as apparently Puccini’s name was too well known to list, plus “Popular,” meaning some popular tunes. These were probably all presented live, but the only performer identified is pianist Jerry Hughes.

A clichéd plot in several nineteenth-century novels and twentieth-century B movies involves some natives threatening to execute some invading Europeans when suddenly one of the Europeans remembers from astronomical tables that a solar eclipse is about to take place. The would-be astronomer demands that the natives release the hostages or he will make the sun disappear. When the sun does briefly turn black, the natives suddenly cower in fear.

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Something like that really happened to Columbus, only it was a lunar eclipse, not a solar eclipse; the plot took place over months, not minutes; and the natives weren’t threatening to execute the Europeans, they just weren’t giving them food for free. On Columbus’ final voyage, he ships landed in June 1503 and he traded goods with the natives for food. When he ran out of trade goods near the end of the year, the natives stopped giving them food. Continue reading →