Floresca, Mariano Papers

Chief Steward, USS Williamsburg

The Mariano Floresca Papers consist of menus from President Harry S. Truman’s yacht, the USS Williamsburg, and from his vacations at Key West, Florida, in 1949-1950. The collection also includes undated handwritten menus, handwritten recipes, and memorabilia.

Size: Less than one half of one linear foot (about 150 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The Truman Library received no donation of copyright from the donor of these papers. Documents created by U. S. Government officials in the course of their duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of these documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Natalie Waterman (2006) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

Mariano Floresca, Chief Steward, U. S. Navy, was a member of the staff that provided for the nutritional needs of President Truman and his guests aboard the President’s yacht, the USS Williamsburg, and during the President’s vacations at Key West, Florida. Floresca is listed as a member of the staff in the official logs of the President’s vacation trips to Key West from March 1949 to March 1952.

According to an acquaintance, Floresca served in the Navy for twenty-two years, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer, and was a chef at the U. S. Naval Academy at one time. Floresca’s papers indicate that he also served as a chef aboard the Williamsburg and at Key West. Floresca died at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, at the age of seventy-nine.

The Mariano Floresca Papers consist of typed and handwritten menus written during 1949 and 1950. Floresca evidently prepared the menus for President Harry S. Truman and his official party when he was aboard the USS Williamsburg and during his vacations at Key West, Florida . The collection consists of one series, a Subject File.

There are three folders in the collection. The first folder contains all the menus created in 1949. Most of these menus are typed, but many have handwritten changes to the meals.

The second folder consists of menus created during the year 1950 and is significantly smaller than the first folder. It also contains typed menus, along with some rough drafts of menus that were handwritten.

The last folder contains handwritten menus that cover a few weeks, but they are only dated by a day of the week, such as Monday or Tuesday. There are also eighteen handwritten recipes in this folder for dishes such as Spanish lamb and Boston cream cake. The folder also contains a personal menu for Admiral William Leahy, a schedule, and a picture of the Big Three at the Yalta Conference.

More information on the Williamsburg can be found in the papers of Leo W. Roberts and William Janssen, and in the Miscellaneous Historical Documents Collection (MHDC 863). More menus for President Truman's meals can be found in the papers of Alonzo Fields.