Bill Keating's Mule Driver's Whip
Bill Keating's Mule Driver's Whip
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- Description
- This mule driver’s whip belonged to William (Bill) Keating who worked as a miner in Schuykill County, Pennsylvania during the first half of the 20th century. Miner’s would load their coal onto mule-drawn carts and claim their coal with an ID so they could be paid when the coal was weighed at the head of the mine. Miners often felt close to the mules used to haul the coal. While working as a mule driver in a Pennsylvania coal miner Bill Keating composed the ballad “Down, Down, Down” to “break my loneliness and to show my mule I was in a friendly mood.”
- Object Name
- whip, mule driver's
- Measurements
- overall: 66 in x 2 in; 167.64 cm x 5.08 cm
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-8995A
- accession number
- 263096
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-8995A
- Credit Line
- William E. Keating
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Agriculture
- Work
- Industry & Manufacturing
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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