From the estate of Mrs. B. E. Walker a woman who was a member of one of the managing families (to this day) of the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company which now makes military vessels only but once made the impressive ocean going passenger liners. Mrs. Walker worked at the shipyard from the 30's until the 70's. This keepsake is in Fair to Good condition with creasing across the middle where certainly folded in half to place in a coat pocket on the day it was received. Also some soiling to the paper but it is not brittle.

What this is basically is a menu folder into which the individual cards for the various daily menus were inserted and in this case you get one which is for a lunch. Which is to be expected as I would guess she did secretarial and phone work and did not go on the sea trials. The America was launched in 1939 and saw standard service until June 1941 when she was seized by the Navy. Notably she was the vessel which on her maiden voyage as a military transport renamed USS West Point took not only soldiers to Europe but also returned the number of diplomatic families from Germany, Italy and other Axis nations stranded here, to their home continent, dropping them off in neutral Portugal.

The paper could be cleaned and conserved but I would likely preserve instead the appearance of age and you might even say history and leave it as is. Anything from the WWII or pre-WWII time for this ship is going to be scarce and sought after, to have an item from the very beginning is exponentially that much harder. Only letting it go because I can't keep everything and I do have to pay for these things and there is competition and they are not ALL of them brain dead around here, not every last one of them anyway.