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 525 items.
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Hatpin holder
- Description (Brief)
- A round ivory-grained celluloid hatpin holder. It has a center spire, circular holder, and purple velvet cushion. It is unmarked.
- date made
- 1880-1930
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.1581
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.1581
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Shade pull ornament
- Description (Brief)
- This ornament was die-cut from a sheet of red celluloid, hand-painted, and glued to a brown celluloid ring. The ornament is in the shape of a sailing ship. It is unmarked and is still attached to its original packaging, a card marked "Shade Pull Ornament 5 cents."
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.1589
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.1589
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kewtie razor
- Description (Brief)
- A woman's miniature double-sided razor, the Kewtie brand. The handle is cream celluloid, as is the case. The Kewtie was made by Lapin Products Inc., of New York City. A small woman's razor such as this would likely have been used for shaving the underarm. The fashion of removing underarm hair began around 1915 with the introduction of sleeveless or sheer-sleeved dresses.
- Source: "'Kewtie' Woman's Razor."Wisconsin Historical Society website, June 7, 2007 http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/002862.asp
- date made
- ca 1930
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.1599
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.1599
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Candlestick holders
- Description (Brief)
- A pair of ivory-grain celluloid candlestick holders. They have flared weighted bases, tapered ring centers, and flared cup-shaped holders. The holders are marked "Tuskeloid" in a diamond shape on the bottom of the base.
- date made
- ca 1920
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.1663
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.1663
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Cut Glass Bowl
- Description
- 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 entity until 1858. Natural history and anthropology artifacts were the focus of the Museum's earliest collecting efforts, but by the late 19th century the Museum was collecting household goods, manufactured for the American and European market, that demonstrated technological and artistic advances in a wide range of industries. Between 1885 and 1920, American glass companies played an important role in building the new collections by donating examples of their currently fashionable glassware.
- T. G. Hawkes & Company of Corning, New York, donated examples of their work to the Museum in 1917 and 1918, showcasing their rich or brilliant-cut glass. This bowl, donated by the firm in 1917, is cut and engraved, but also mounted in sterling silver—a newly fashionable style at the time.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1917
- maker
- T. G. Hawkes & Co.
- ID Number
- CE*59.147a
- catalog number
- 59.147a
- accession number
- 61165
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Juvet Time Globe
- Description
- In 1880, Scientific American enthusiastically recommended Louis P. Juvet's time globe to its readers. It was, the magazine found, "a fit ornament for any library, a valuable adjunct in every business office, and a necessity in every institution of learning." The clockwork-driven globe was undeniably useful for studying geography, determining world time, and illustrating the rotation of the earth. The basis of its appeal, however, was even broader. Prominently displayed in the parlors and drawing rooms of Gilded Age America, the elegant time globe clearly demonstrated the wealth and culture of its owner.
- Available in a range of sizes and versions simple and ornate, the time globe consisted of three basic elements: a globe, a mechanism for rotating it, and a base. The globe most often featured a terrestrial map, but celestial globes were also offered. An equatorial ring indicated worldwide time and zones of daylight and darkness. A meridian ring supported a clock dial over the north pole.
- Concealed within the globe was a four-day, spring-driven brass movement that drove the clock dial and rotated the globe once every twenty-four hours. Manufactured for Juvet by Rood and Horton of Bristol, Connecticut, the movements featured a lever escapement and a balance wheel. Turning the feather end of the arrow-shaped axis wound the movement.
- Precisely when production of the globes began is uncertain. Juvet, a Swiss immigrant and a resident of Glens Falls, New York, first patented a mechanical globe in January 1867, and exhibited one at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. Probably sometime in 1879, Juvet formed a partnership with James Arkell. By the early 1880s, Juvet and Company of Canajoharie, New York, was making more than sixty varieties of globes. In October 1886, fire consumed the factory where the globes were assembled, ending their manufacture there forever.
- Pictured on the left. Overall measurements are 55 1/2 x 17 x 17 inches.
- Date made
- ca 1885
- manufacturer
- Juvet & Co.
- ID Number
- ME*308472
- catalog number
- 308472
- accession number
- 93248
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
An Acorn Clock
- Description
- The acorn clock, named for the whimsical, graceful shape of its case, is coveted by collectors for its rarity. Historically it is interesting as an example of mass-produced Connecticut clocks during their transition from weight- to spring-drive. The use of the spring-drive meant that manufacturers no longer had to build elongated cases to accommodate falling weights. This new freedom, along with the technique of laminating and bending wood, made possible the characteristic acorn shape of the case.
- Jonathon Clark Brown (1807-1872) was a prominent Bristol, Connecticut manufacturer, who operated a succession of clock factories. Last and best-known of these was the Forestville Manufacturing Company, which boasted an annual output of one hundred thousand clocks shortly before its bankruptcy in 1856. A cabinetmaker by trade, Brown offered an unusually diverse and imaginative range of case styles. The Forestville Manufacturing Company made acorn clocks like this one from 1847 to 1850.
- Acorn clocks were among the first to use the locally made coiled-steel springs that had recently become available. These springs were not installed as integral parts of the movement. Instead they were attached to a conventional weight-driven movement in a notably rough-and-ready manner. Mounted at the bottom of the case, the springs exerted the same pulling force upon the clock as the falling weights had. The two springs, one for the going train and another for the hour-striking train, were each combined with a fusee, a cone-shaped pulley designed to equalize the changing force of the unwinding spring. Before long, Connecticut clockmakers dispensed with the fusees and incorporated the springs directly into the movements.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1849
- manufacturer
- Forestville Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- ME*311601
- catalog number
- 311601
- accession number
- 148588
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Jerome Brothers Ogee Clock
- Description
- The depression of 1837 hit Connecticut wooden clock manufacturers so hard that they feared the entire industry might collapse. On a trip to Virginia to collect old bills, Chauncey Jerome—a successful clock producer from Bristol, Connecticut—had a new idea. A simple one-day clock made of brass, he thought, could be produced far more cheaply and in much greater quantities than the standard wooden clock. When he returned home, he described the idea to his brother Noble, a talented clockmaker who quickly made a prototype and received a U.S. patent on it in 1839.
- A typical factory might produce several thousand wooden clocks per year, but the Jeromes—and their principal imitators and rivals—were soon mass-producing brass clocks in the hundreds of thousands. For these brass clocks, Chauncey Jerome adopted a simple case introduced by several other New England clockmakers. The case became famous as the "Ogee," named for its characteristic S-shaped moldings.
- Unlike wooden clocks, brass movements were unaffected by humidity and could be transported by ship. The entire world, clockmakers quickly recognized, was a potential market. The reception Chauncey Jerome's clocks received in England, home of some of the world's finest clockmakers, illustrates the impact of his innovation. When the first clocks arrived in 1842, valued at an improbable $1.50 each, English customs inspectors assumed that Jerome had set the figure far below cost to avoid paying the proper duties. To teach Jerome a lesson, the inspectors bought the whole shipment at the declared price. When a similar cargo at the same valuation arrived a few days later, they did the same. Only with the third shipment did they recognize that they were unwittingly becoming distributors for Yankee clock manufacturers. Jerome was content with the prices British customs agents had been paying him and would have happily supplied them indefinitely. From then on Jerome's clocks entered the English market unimpeded.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1840
- maker
- Jerome, Chauncey
- ID Number
- ME*318998
- catalog number
- 318998
- accession number
- 236076
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1840 - 1860 "LeMoyne Star" Pieced Quilt
- Description
- The pieces that are used to make the 71 “LeMoyne Star” blocks on this quilt create a useful record. They represent an assortment of fabrics used for ordinary mid-19th century clothes. Brown, tan, grey, and rust-colored fabrics, most twill-woven cotton/wool, were used to piece the blocks. These alternate with 6 ½-inch squares of brown and grey striped cotton/wool fabric. The quilt is lined with a plain-weave, cotton warp/wool weft fabric. Brown carded wool serves as the filling. The quilting pattern consists of parallel diagonal lines 1 ½-inch apart, quilted at 3-4 stitches per inch.
- The machine- and hand-woven textile examples might not otherwise have been preserved if not used to craft this quilt.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1840-1860
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1979.0167.01
- catalog number
- 1979.0167.01
- accession number
- 1979.0167
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1760 Eve Van Cortlandt's Quilted Counterpane
- Description
- Eve Van Cortlandt's fine white linen quilted counterpane is one of the earliest dated American quilts in existence. The date, "1760" and her initials, "E V C," are embroidered in blue silk cross-stitch on the quilt lining. Quilted with white linen thread, a delicate pattern of flowers, feathery stems, and low open baskets surround a central quatrefoil medallion. The design is set off by a background of quilted parallel lines just one-eighth inch apart.
- Eve was born on May 22, 1736, to Frederick Van Cortlandt and Francena Jay each from families of wealthy and prominent New York landowners. She made her quilt for her dower chest while living in the family home. In 1761, Eve married the Honorable Henry White, a businessman and a member of the King’s Council of the Royal Colony of New York. He became president of the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1772 and remained loyal to the King of England during the Revolution.
- When the British evacuated New York in 1783, Henry moved his family to England. Henry White died in London in 1786, and Eve returned to America as a widow, most likely to be near two of her children who lived in New York. Of their five children, two sons were in the British service and remained in London, as did one daughter. Eve died in 1836 at the age of one hundred, having witnessed a century of historic events. Since 1897, the family home in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx has been a museum.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1760
- quilter
- Van Cortlandt, Eve
- ID Number
- 1979.0184.01
- catalog number
- 1979.0184.01
- accession number
- 1979.0184
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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