DAY 61: A Gilded Age Thanksgiving

Washington Post, "Biltmore Thanksgiving," 2014

Jennie Churchill may have celebrated the American national holiday in England with her American friends and family, but both in London and as a young girl in Manhattan she experienced a very different sort of  tradition than the one we enjoy today. 

Over-indulgence--A Spoiled Thanksgiving, by artist Alice Barber Stephens

We think of Thanksgiving as a family holiday, with a fixed rotation of cherished dishes unique to our family's culture--and celebrated at a preferably large dinner table at home. But in the Gilded Age, when everything was an opportunity for conspicuous consumption, Thanksgiving Dinner was celebrated at a glittering Manhattan restaurant or hotel--Delmonico's, perhaps, or the Fifth Avenue Hotel, owned by Minnie Stevens Paget's father, Paran Stevens. And far more than turkey with stuffing was on the menu. 















Here's a sampling from Thanksgiving, 1895, at the Vendome Hotel, Boston. Oysters, turtle soup, leg of mutton, timbals of lobster, green goose, and something called a Frozen Tom and Jerry. The point was to serve so many elegant dishes that sampling them all was impossible. 

However you celebrate the day--with friends and family or as a guest at another's table--Jennie and I wish you the best of the season.

For more images from THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN, visit the  Pinterest board behind the novel.