Creator
Massasoit House
Title
Table d’hôte
Coverage
Springfield, Massachusetts
Date
April 16, 1865
Description
This dinner on Easter Sunday features prairie chickens, apple fritters, and squash pies. The spring season is reflected in offerings of Connecticut River shad and cowslips, a flowering herb also used as a complexion aid and a calmative. The most intriguing aspect of the menu is its simple black border. In the bed of the printing press, straight rules were inserted on the four sides of the movable type to create what appears to be a funereal border, most likely in mourning for Abraham Lincoln, who had died the previous day.