This article is part of our Museums special section about how artists and institutions are adapting to changing times.

Surrounded by a group of 10th graders, Alex Asal, a museum educator at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, read aloud from three school lunch menus. She asked the students to raise their hands for which sounded best.

One menu had options such as pizza, Caribbean rice salad and fresh apples. Another had grilled cheese, tomato soup and green beans. The third featured creamed beef on toast and creamed salmon with a roll.

That menu — which did prompt a few raised hands — was from 1914, Asal revealed. A century ago, butter and cream were considered as vital as fruits and vegetables are today because the concern was less about what children ate than whether they ate enough at all.

The exhibition that had drawn students from the Octorara Area School District of Atglen, Pa., was “Lunchtime: The History of Science on the School Food Tray.” It examines how this cornerstone of childhood became deeply intertwined with American politics, culture and scientific progress.

From the earliest school food programs until now, “what’s been interesting for us about this topic is how discourses of nutrition and science have always been present,” said Jesse Smith, the museum’s director of curatorial affairs and digital content.

The exhibition includes school lunch menus, including one from the Home and School League in Philadelphia in 1914.Credit…Prelinger Library