Dinner for the Directors of the Philadelphia & Havre de Grace Tow-Boat Co.

The Philadelphia & Havre de Grace Tow-Boat Company hauled goods between the two cities. The Company's first annual report listed hardware, dry goods, coal, oil, hides, etc. and vast amounts of foodstuffs –sugar, molasses, coffee, mackerel, salt, whiskey and other liquors, wheat and flour, butter, bacon and lard, and dried vegetables.  This menu for a dinner for the Directors of the company was found laid into a book on geology, and it is tempting to think that one of the Directors of the company or a guest at the dinner used it as a bookmark, leading to its unique survival.  (The book was later owned by Smithsonian Secretary Charles D. Walcott, 1850-1927, who donated it to the Institution.)