Valmora Industrial Sanatorium, a tuberculosis sanatorium located in Watrous, New Mexico, regularly hosted special Thanksgiving dinners for patients well enough to socialize and eat in the main dining hall. Along with rest and fresh air, a rich and nutritious diet was part of a patient’s treatment at the facility. Dr. Carl Gellenthien, Valmora’s second director, wrote about treating tuberculosis with diet, including, “A Resume of Diet Therapy” (1931) and “Wartime Food Rationing and Tuberculosis” (1943).
Valmora often printed special menus for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other social gatherings. Here are two examples of Thanksgiving menus found in their records in Special Collections and an article about the 1938 dinner in the December issue of the Valmora Sun (one of the sanatorium’s newsletters).