Fish knives from the Ritz Hotel
The silverplate flatware in this exhibit reflects American middle-class culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Students in His234 this term found that middle-class culture developed at the intersections of the private and public spheres. For example, hotel restaurants used matching flatware to create an elegant, homelike ambience. In turn, customers who used such flatware when they were dining in public then purchased their own sets to use at home.
1898 menu from Delmonico's, New York City