About this collection

Harriet Thomas, dubbed "Rusty" for her flaming red hair, was the food editor at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin from 1949 to 1964, during which time she began collecting menus from her dining experiences. She donated what she estimated were her "40 pounds of menus" to the Kapi`olani Community College Food Service Program in April 1996. The Food Service Program turned the menus over to the library to house and maintain the collection in a secure, climate-controlled atmosphere. The three boxes of menus span the period from 1946 to around 1982. They have been loosely organised by restaurant location. Some of the menus, especially those in the Waikiki and Shipboard folders, are beautiful works of art, suitable for display or other graphic purposes. Others are simply prosaic photocopied menus, dog-eared and faded. These are still useful, however, for the information they convey about dining habits, prices, etc.

After a lifetime of food experiences, travel, and being a "social butterfly", Harriet Thomas passed away in 2004. You can learn more about her in this obituary that was published in the December 3rd, 2004 issue of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. This menu collection is dedicated to her memory.

How to find information in the Rusty Thomas Menu Collection

There are 5 ways to find information in this collection:

• search for particular words
• browse by title
• browse by date
• browse by subject (which includes the names of restaurants if you're looking for a menu for a particular restaurant)
• browse by location

You can search for particular words within the subject, location, or full text of the menu. This is the first page that comes up when you begin, and can be reached from other pages by pressing the Search button. Please note that full text searching is currently available only for the cruise ship, international, and mainland menus. We're working on making it available in the rest of the collection. Thanks for your patience!

Click on the Browse by Title button to browse menus by title (listing is sorted by title and date).

Click on the Browse by Date button to browse menus by date (for those menus that have dates).

Click on the Browse by Subject button to browse menus by subject headings (listing is sorted by subject heading and title).

Click on the Browse by Location button to browse menus by the location of the restaurant (listing is sorted by location and title).