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Banquet Menu from the Centenary of the Evacuation of New York City, 1883

Centenary of the Evacuation of New York City, 1883

Banquet Menu from the Centenary of the Evacuation of New York City, 1883

Although its significance has long since faded from public memory, November 25th was once widely celebrated in New York City as Evacuation Day. In 1783, it marked the departure of the last British troops from American soil and George Washington's victorious return to the city that had been occupied since 1776. One of the most notable aspects of the British withdrawal and Washington’s subsequent march through New York City was the relative orderliness that characterized the events.

Enthusiasm for celebrating Evacuation Day waxed and waned in the following decades, peaking with the centennial anniversary in 1883. The celebration, said to be "one of the great civic events of the nineteenth century in New York City", included a parade, fireworks, and the unveiling of a statue of Washington. The New York Times reported that "the dinner of the Chamber of Commerce ended the last of the centennial days".

References:

  1. Erik Peter Axelson, "Evacuation Day: New York City's Forgotten Past,"American History 41:3 (August 2006), 28-36.
  2. Clifton Hood, "An Unusable Past: Urban Elites, New York City's Evacuation Day, and the Transformations of Memory Culture," Journal of Social History 37:4 (Summer 2004), 883-915.
  3. Robert I. Goler, "Evacuation Day", in Kenneth T. Jackson, ed., The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 385.
  4. "After a Hundred Years", New York Times, Nov 27, 1883.

The Nestlé Library has one of the finest collections on hospitality management in the world. Our collection of over 37,000 volumes includes books and periodicals on all aspects of hospitality management. In addition to books and periodicals, the library holds over 1,500 videos. See the Cornell Library Catalog for specific titles.

The library also features a large collection of menus and rare books that are held in the Cornell Library's Rare and Manuscript Collections, located in the Carl A. Kroch Library. Our Restaurant Menu Database serves as a finding aid for the menu collection.