Domestic Furnishings - Overview
Washboards, armchairs, lamps, and pots and pans may not seem to be museum pieces. But they are invaluable evidence of how most people lived day to day, last week or three centuries ago. The Museum's collections of domestic furnishings comprise more than 40,000 artifacts from American households. Large and small, they include four houses, roughly 800 pieces of furniture, fireplace equipment, spinning wheels, ceramics and glass, family portraits, and much more.
The Arthur and Edna Greenwood Collection contains more than 2,000 objects from New England households from colonial times to mid-1800s. From kitchens of the past, the collections hold some 3,300 artifacts, ranging from refrigerators to spatulas. The lighting devices alone number roughly 3,000 lamps, candleholders, and lanterns.
"Domestic Furnishings - Overview" showing 34 items.
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David Rittenhouse Tall Case Clock
- Description
- David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) was eighteenth-century Pennsylvania's most accomplished clock- and instrument-maker. An avid astronomer, he built complicated astronomical clocks and orreries, or planetary models, that not only kept time but predicted celestial events. These major works, coupled with his notable and widely publicized observations of Venus passing between Earth and the Sun in 1769, established him as a scientific leader and secured him an eminent place in the history of American science.
- Rittenhouse was also a prominent citizen of Philadelphia, politically active on behalf of the Revolution and the new American nation. He conducted boundary surveys in the Middle Atlantic states and the Northwest Territory, succeeded Benjamin Franklin as President of the American Philosophical Society, and served as first director of the U.S. Mint.
- This eight-day clock in a plain walnut case, made about 1770, reminds us, though, that Rittenhouse spent more than twenty years—from about 1750 until the Revolution—making clocks for a living. Largely self-taught, he incorporated standard English features in this timekeeper: the movement has cast brass plates and steel pinions; a seconds pendulum; an anchor escapement; a rack-and-snail striking mechanism; a second hand on the escape wheel arbor; and a calendar. The dial is engraved "David Rittenhouse/Philadelphia."
- The lead weights, according to oral tradition, survived the Revolution while most others did not. Probably because they sympathized with the British, the family that owned the clock hid the weights in a well to avoid having them melted down for shot. Ironically, Rittenhouse was one of those responsible for the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety's drive to procure ammunition during the war. His duties included collecting the lead clock weights commonly in use and replacing them with iron ones.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1770
- maker
- Rittenhouse, David
- ID Number
- 1984.0416.007
- catalog number
- 1984.0416.007
- accession number
- 1984.0416
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1843 Hannah Nicholson's Album Quilt
- Description
- Members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, presented Hannah C. Nicholson with this album quilt made in 1843. She was 19 years old at the time and would shortly marry Howell Grave in 1845. A descendent wrote at the time of donation: “The quilt has been carefully tended since that time and regarded as an heirloom by our family.”
- In the mid-nineteenth century, album quilts with inscriptions and signatures were often made to celebrate an important event, and provide a textile record of friends and family. The forty-one appliquéd blocks and one inked block on this quilt are inscribed with names, dates, and places. Names of Hannah’s paternal relatives, Nicholson, Miller, Biddle, and Parrish, predominate.
- The quilt’s inscriptions indicate that some blocks were contributed by women in the name of relatives or young children, e.g. “for her brother” or “for her daughter.” When the block was for a son or daughter, the age was also added. The dates are given in the style of month, date and year with many of them just “8 Mo 1843.” Most of the places inked on the blocks are from the Philadelphia area, with a few from New Jersey (Woodbury, Bordentown, Pleasant Hill, and Salem). Although Hannah was born and lived in Indiana, her father was from New Jersey.
- The quilt is composed of forty-nine pieced and appliquéd blocks. The blocks are made with glazed, unglazed, and roller-printed cottons. These were joined by a 2 ½-inch glazed printed-stripe sashing. The same printed cotton is used for the border, providing a cohesive grid-like framework for the blocks. The quilting pattern is an overall diagonal grid, quilted 8 or 9 stitches per inch.
- Hannah C. Nicholson was born in Indiana on November 19, 1824, to John and Esther Nicholson. On August 14, 1845 Hannah married Howell Grave (1818-1894) in Wayne County, Indiana. Howell’s ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Indiana. His parents and grandparents arrived in the same year Indiana achieved statehood, 1816, and he was born there in 1818.
- Howell and Hannah farmed in Wayne County and raised four children, three girls (Esther, Emma, and Josephine) and a son (Vernon). In the early 1860s they moved to Richmond, Indiana, where for twenty years Howell was one of the principal iron merchants in the city. By the mid-1880s he was in the insurance and real estate businesses. Two of their daughters are listed as teachers on the 1870 census, while Vernon continued to farm. After Hannah was widowed in 1894, she lived with her daughter and son-in-law in Wayne, Indiana. She died there on February 13, 1912, and is buried in the Earlham Cemetery Richmond, Indiana.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1843
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1986.0657.01
- catalog number
- 1986.0657.01
- accession number
- 1986.0657
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lepus Texianus, Aud. & Bach.
- Description (Brief)
- This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.
- This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a brown hare with mottled markings crouched among low grasses.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1848
- artist
- Audubon, John Woodhouse
- printer
- Bowen, John T.
- publisher
- Audubon, John James
- ID Number
- DL*60.2742
- catalog number
- 60.2742
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1835 - 1845 Quaker Trousseau Pieced Quilt
- Description
- An intriguing note came with this framed medallion quilt when it was donated: “The Quaker Quilt. Phil. ca 1840 made for wedding of bride of early Philadelphia Quaker Abolitionist of pieces from the gowns of her trousseau.” Unfortunately there is no indication of the quilt maker or ownership.
- The focus of the 41-inch central square, “Star of Bethlehem,” is set off by a 5-inch octagonal border. Additional pieced and plain borders frame this variation of a medallion-style quilt. The beige, tan, brown, rust, and light grey silks and satins utilized for the pattern would be typical of the Quaker esthetic and period. The quilt is lined with roller printed cottons and filled with wool. It is quilted with a variety of geometric patterns (grid, diagonal, chevron, and parallel lines), feathered and flowering vines in the borders, and a spray of flowers in the corner squares. This quilt is a precisely designed example of Quaker quilts in the mid-19th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1835-1845
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- TE*E388880
- accession number
- 182022
- catalog number
- E388880
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Grandpapa's Pet
- Description (Brief)
- Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
- These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class, and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
- This is a lithotint; interior scene of a seated older man with his cane and a dog sleeping near his feet. A standing child is facing him. Simple furnishings include a bench, chest or bureau, and a chair. A plant, shovel and saw are also depicted.
- The inscription indicates that the print was drawn specifically for Miss Leslie's Magazine and published in April 1843, in the year the periodical debuted. This print was considered the first true lithotint produced in the US, the result of a partnership and experiments between artist/ draftsman John H. Richard and printer/lithographer Peter S. Duval in 1841/1842. The print was described in Miss Leslie's as a product of both art and technology and considered a great breakthrough in publishing. It was printed in color from one stone.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1843
- artist
- Richard, John H.
- lithographer
- Duval, Peter S.
- ID Number
- DL*60.2226
- catalog number
- 60.2226
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tarandus Furcifer, Agassiz
- Description (Brief)
- This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.
- This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of two male reindeer on boulders, with forested foothills in the background. One is in summer pelage (coat) the other in winter pelage (coat).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1847
- artist
- Audubon, John Woodhouse
- printer
- Bowen, John T.
- publisher
- Audubon, John James
- ID Number
- DL*60.2734
- catalog number
- 60.2734
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Canis Lupus, Linn (Var Albus)
- Description (Brief)
- This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.
- This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a white male wolf crouching in a clearing and chewing on a bone.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1845
- printer
- Bowen, John T.
- artist; publisher
- Audubon, John James
- ID Number
- DL*60.2735
- catalog number
- 60.2735
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Feles Concolor, Linn
- Description (Brief)
- This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.
- This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a brown male cougar standing over his felled prey. Forested mountains in the background.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1846
- artist
- Audubon, John Woodhouse
- printer
- Bowen, John T.
- publisher
- Audubon, John James
- ID Number
- DL*60.2736
- catalog number
- 60.2736
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ovibos Moschatus, Gmel
- Description (Brief)
- This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.
- This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of two male musk oxen standing on a grassy plateau with rocky mountains in the background.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1847
- artist
- Audubon, John Woodhouse
- printer
- Bowen, John T.
- publisher
- Audubon, John James
- ID Number
- DL*60.2737
- catalog number
- 60.2737
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Myodes Hudsonius, Rich
- Description (Brief)
- This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.
- This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a large white lemming and a smaller brown lemming crouching on boulders amidst wildflowers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1847
- artist
- Audubon, John Woodhouse
- printer
- Bowen, John T.
- publisher
- Audubon, John James
- ID Number
- DL*60.2738
- catalog number
- 60.2738
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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