Menu for Christmas Eve, 1889, for Van Ness and American Hotels

S. l. (Burlington, VT): Van Ness and American Hotels, 1889. First Edition. Good. Menu card; 6 3/4 x 4; beige card stock with a chromolithograph illustration of two birds standing on a branch on recto and text on verso; a few faint spots to left margin; two closed cuts to top and right edges; lower right corner creased; upper left corner with a small indentation, most probably as published and starting out as a hole for tying a string through it; in about good condition.A beautiful menu, it outlined a lavish, multi-course, dinner feast for December 24, 1889 and was published by the Van Ness and American Hotels, two landmark hotels in Vermont under joint (truncated) management. Their proprietor was Urban Andrain Woodbury (1838 - 1915) - Civil War veteran, businessman, Mayor of Burlington, Lieutenant Governor, and 45th Governor of Vermont. The menu included Shoulder of Mutton, Minced Beef on Toast, Wine Jelly, Chocolate Bavarian Cream, etc. Interestingly enough, the two birds in the illustration appeared to be (to this untrained eye) a pair of Western Tanagers, songbirds of the Cardinal family, found along the West Coast of North America, from Baja California to Alaska, and nowhere near Vermont. (Inventory #: 002646)