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. |
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Selected Objects |
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Cut Glass Bowl
From its founding in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution was assumed to be the keeper of the national collections, although the "United States National Museum" did not emerge as a formal ...
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Esther Copp's Sampler
Three block alphabets; two alphabets colored in pairs, one all black; no "J"; numbers 1 through 0. Simple geometric crossbands framed by flowering vine and rose bushes. At base of ...
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Fabric Sample from Marshall Field & Co. Collection
At the turn of the twentieth century, the American textile industry was the most technologically advanced in the world. However, it was still dependent on Europe, especially France, for art ...
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Reeves Vacuum Cleaner Company Suction Sweeper
This hand-powered vacuum cleaner, made for cleaning dirt from household carpets and floors, was one of many innovations introduced in the early years of the 20th century to bring greater ...
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Salt and Pepper Shakers
These salt and pepper shakers belonged to Leo Baekeland, the inventor of Bakelite, the first totally synthetic plastic. They are made of pure Bakelite resin, not the resin mixed with ...
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Silver Teapot made for Abigail Robinson of Newport, RI
This silver teapot was made by Samuel Casey of Little Rest (later Kingston, R.I.), about 1750, for Abigail Robinson, probably about the time of her marriage to John Wanton of ...
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Tall Case Clock
The earliest domestic clocks in the American colonies were English-made "lantern" clocks, with brass gear trains held between pillars. Along with fully furnished "best" beds, looking glasses, sofas, silver, and ...
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Tiffany Floor Lamp
This lamp, from about 1900, is a compelling example of Louis Comfort Tiffany's ability to transform a design aesthetic inspired by nature into a fabulous decorative furnishing. The bamboo design ...
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Tupperware Bowl and Cover
Few products are more symbolic of household life in post-World War II America than Tupperware. Made of plastic, intended for service in the suburban kitchen, and with clean and modern ...
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Watercolor Painting Depicting the Bennet Family Record
The practice of recording family likenesses predates the 1839 invention of photography by thousands of years, as seen in sculptures and paintings. Illuminated family records commemorated births, deaths, and marriages. ...
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Wicker Laundry Hamper
Elizabeth ("Libbie") Bacon, a Michigan judge's daughter, was bright and well educated. She married George Armstrong Custer (West Point Class of June 1861) in 1864. Although he had graduated at ...
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Related Items from the Archives Center |
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Simmons Company Records, 1892-2000
The Simmons Company featured its Beautyrest mattress, first introduced in 1929, in its exhibition hall at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
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