The Transportation Library Menu Collection map was developed in preparation for a Teaching, Learning and Technology workshop [2] called “Map-making and Learning.” The TLT workshop series is a partnership between Academic & Research Technologies, The Searle Center for Teaching Excellence, and the University Library. The workshop centered on implementing mapping technology as a teaching method to engage students and foster collaboration. Some of the tools we discussed included Google Earth, Google Maps, and ArcGIS.
The Menu Collection of the Northwestern University Transportation Library began as a gift from Northwestern alumnus George M. Foster [3] who donated his extensive menu collection to the Transportation Library in 1997, where it has since been expanded from other sources.
George M. Foster wrote in a letter [4] to Roberto Sarmiento of the Northwestern University Transportation Library, “I have always been interested in the history of all transportation forms. Air travel is the only form, however, where I can say I began near the beginning.”
The menus date back to the earliest days of commercial air travel in 1928 through the present. The collection currently includes more than 400 menus from 54 airline carriers, cruise ships and railroad companies.
View Transportation Library Menu Collection [5] in a larger map
