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A tasty treat, State Library’s menu collection
from FIFTY+SA Issue 03
by Kiddo Mag
The State Library of South Australia’s newest exhibition Sweet and Savoury: Menus from the collections of the State Library is on display until the end of June.
Menus are kept as part of the State Library’s ephemera collection. Ephemera is material which is designed to be short lived - such as posters, handbills, programs and more. These everyday items are a record of South Australian life and social customs, arts and popular culture, and local and national issues.
From the plain to the ornate and from the simply functional to the beautiful, the State Library has many thousands of menus. This exhibition looks at menus from our oldest, a dinner at Government House in 1867, through to those recently acquired from South Australian restaurants large and small celebrating cuisines from around the world.
The menu collection has many hidden stories, showing not just how our eating and drinking tastes have changed, but also the changing styles of graphic design.
It’s time for a scavenger hunt
Using clues on the back of the bookmark available at the Library, see what you can find on the menus on display. Menus tell us more than what food is on offer, they hold lots of hidden stories.
