A few years ago in the Arthur Kimball Papers at the Eisenhower Presidential Library I came across two menus for Christmas dinners at the White House Staff Mess. The White House Mess is a dining room for senior White House staff, both career Civil Service and those political staff who come with the current President. The cost for the Christmas dinners during the Eisenhower Administration was $1.
If you'd like to read more about how the White House Mess developed in the Truman era and expanded under Eisenhower, I highly recommend the oral history of William Hopkins. Hopkins served as Executive Clerk at the White House from 1948 to 1971. The section on the Mess starts on page 117.
That's it for 2022. Next year I plan to focus on cookbooks in my digitization pile. I'm also currently compiling of spreadsheet of community cookbooks, those published by clubs, churches, and other organizations. Hopefully this will be an interesting way to look at regional dishes around the US and the spread of food trends popular among home cooks.
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