On-board dinner menu card for the P&O Line S.S. Strathmore, England to Adelaide voyage, 'The Orchid', Sunday 13 July 1952.

Printed dinner menu for P & O line S.S. Strathmore, dated Sunday, 13th July, 1952. The card is folded once vertically. On the front is a colour printed image of a drawing showing different orchids, in yellow, orange, purple, pink and white with green foliage. The orchids shown are named on the back as Phaius bicolour, Corlogyne testacea, Cypripediuim barbatum, Cydripedium niveum, Bulbophyllum fascinator, and Liparis tabularis.

On the inside the menu is printed in a sans serif font on the left in black type with the P&O at the top in red. Opposite in two italic fonts (one sans serif capitals, the other serif) are the wine suggestions in black. On the back is a description, printed in brown ink, of orchids and their habitat, and including the Latin names of the orchids shown in the image.

Given by Pamela Griffiths

Gift of Mrs. Pamela Griffiths, whose late husband collected them while a passenger on board.

Reason For Production: Commission

This menu card was made for a voyage on board the P&O cruise liner “Strathmore” in 1952. Illustrated menus such as this were printed in advance on land with the inside (menu part) left blank, to be printed on board ship. Passengers often kept them as souvenirs. The menus reflect the luxury of cruise liner travel during its heyday. “Strathmore” was built in 1935 for P&O during the heyday of the ocean liners. She was kept until 1963, when the newly merged P&O-Orient Line got rid of its pre-war ships.

E.345-2005