Samuel Clemens, otherwise known as the writer and adventurer Mark Twain, was born in 1835 and spent his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri. The author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was only four years old when he moved with his family to the bustling town on the Mississippi River and he stayed there till his late teens. The town inspired several of Twain’s fictional settings, including the town of St Petersburg, in his two classics of American literature.

Twain died in 1910 after a packed life that also included being a journalist, a licensed steamboat captain and a gold prospector.

The Mark Twain Hotel was an historic hotel building built in Renaissance Revival style in 1905 to cater to visitors to Hannibal, which included many Mark Twain fans. Thus, the hotel printed this 1940s menu with a map showing pivotal events and places in the author’s life, along with a dateline. The menu includes WWII OPS pricing.

The hotel closed but the building, registered as one of America’s historic places, still stands and is an apartment complex.

Courtesy Private Collection.