Newspaper clipping from 1897 describing Thanksgiving for Veterans at Dayton National Home for Volunteer Soldiers. (Cincinnati Enquirer, newspapers.com)
Newspaper clipping from 1897 describing Thanksgiving for Veterans at Dayton National Home for Volunteer Soldiers. (Cincinnati Enquirer, newspapers.com)

As another Thanksgiving is upon us, thoughts turn towards the traditions that surround the holiday, many of them involving food. Amid shopping, chopping, baking and barking, there may be some among us who stand in the middle of the kitchen wondering how those before us got it all done.

At the National VA History Center Archives, staff members (tired of their own frantic recipe Googling) went looking to see what past Thanksgivings looked like and were rewarded with positive results.

From a note in the Cincinnati Enquirer dated 26 November 1897, we know that several thousand pies, 500 quarts of cranberry sauce, and 25 bushels of sweet potato were on the menu. Also noted was the presence of approximately 5,000 Veterans. (The Archives team now looks upon their own more modest families, and the dishes that will need washed, a little more favorably.)

Forty years later, in 1931, very little changed, other than the oyster dressing being changed out for sage.

Menu from a 1930 Thanksgiving meal at Dayton. (NVAHC)
Menu from a 1930 Thanksgiving meal at Dayton. (NVAHC)
Menu from a 1930 Thanksgiving meal at Dayton. (NVAHC)
Menu from a 1930 Thanksgiving meal at Dayton. (NVAHC)

Interestingly, on the day this menu was used, Thanksgiving was not a legal holiday. That didn’t happen until 1941, in which the fourth Thursday of November was declared as Thanksgiving Day.

Moving forward almost 40 more years, the 1970 menu has a little more color and vibrancy, but items served changed little, with the possible exception of, again, the dressing. Here, the menu shows southern dressing. Since some team members were back to Googling recipes, it seems that Southern dressing is made with liberal amounts of sage and oysters are optional. So, really, nothing has changed.

Menu from a 1970 Thanksgiving meal at Dayton. Image of a tree on a orange tinted landscape with pumpkins, brown fence and opaque yellow skyline. (NVAHC)
Menu from a 1970 Thanksgiving meal at Dayton. (NVAHC)
Menu from a 1970 Thanksgiving meal at Dayton. (NVAHC)
Menu from a 1970 Thanksgiving meal at Dayton. (NVAHC)

From everyone at the VA History Office, we wish you and your family a warm, safe holiday.

Sources

National VA History Center archives

By Robyn Rodgers

Senior Archivist, VA History Office and the National VA History Center

Share this story

Published on Nov. 23, 2021

Estimated reading time is 1.9 min.

Related Stories

  • Read The Short-lived Perryville National Cemetery

    Featured Stories

    The Short-lived Perryville National Cemetery

    The Perryville National Cemetery is the only national cemetery to be constructed, dismantled, reestablished on a different site without any burials, and finally transferred to a state government. What is its legacy and story?

  • Read History of Former Whipple VA Directors Schmoll And McIntyre

    Featured Stories

    History of Former Whipple VA Directors Schmoll And McIntyre

    Leadership change is something that happens constantly, whether it’s due to promotion, health, or other circumstances. At the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Northern Arizona Medical Center (formally known as Whipple VA Hospital) in Prescott, Arizona, directors have stayed in their position on average, three to five years. The shortest stint was 22 months, the longest was 16 years and two months. Most former directors moved on and retired elsewhere. However, two former directors, Paul N. Schmoll and Virgil I. McIntyre, either returned to or stayed in Prescott following their retirement. Both men are laid to rest at local cemeteries in the Prescott, Arizona, area.

  • Read Y2K and VA: Preparing for a New Year

    Featured Stories

    Y2K and VA: Preparing for a New Year

    December 1999 was a tumultuous time for the world. The threat of the Year 2000 “Y2K” bug was a serious concern for the Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal agencies as 2000 approached. However, [...]