John E. Jones of Wiretown (now Waretown), New Jersey, invented a mechanism in 1870 to relieve strain on anchor cables. This is his patent model for the device, which employs rubber springs in a pivoting frame as a surge buffer. "This is a most durable and efficient arrangement for" preventing damage from strained cables, he argued, "and its advantages will be readily understood by all sea-faring men."
Strong, rot-resistant iron chains increasingly replaced natural-fiber anchor cables beginning in the 1850s, and by the 1870s they were almost universal on larger vessels. Jones's invention responded to the less elastic nature of iron compared to hemp, jute, and manila by providing a way to relieve any sudden tension that might occur in a cable. Jones also patented the use of rubber springs in adjustable lanyards, the patent model for which is also in the collection.
John E. Jones of Waretown, New Jersey, designed an elastic lanyard for use in setting up a vessel's standing rigging. This is the model he sent to Washington in 1871 with his application for a patent protecting the device.
Wire rope became more common in the second half of the nineteenth century. Aboard sailing vessels, it first replaced natural-fiber ropes in standing rigging, which didn't require constant handling. Later, as mechanical winches came into greater use, it replaced frequently handled running rigging as well. For many centuries, the ropes supporting a vessel's masts were adjusted using short ropes run between special blocks called deadeyes. Or, as a sailor would say, shrouds and backstays were set up using lanyards. Wire rope was more readily adjusted using turnbuckles, which, along with bottlescrews, remain the standard devices for the purpose today. Jones thought a more effective arrangement would employ a series of rubber cushions; tension was to be adjusted with a single short screw, instead of a turnbuckle's pair of long threaded bolts. It is not known if his invention was ever commercially produced.
Jones also patented the use of rubber springs to relieve the strain on chain cables, and his surge reliever patent model is also in the collection.
The crafting of this quilt was made possible by William Grover’s 1851 invention of the double-thread chain stitch. He and William Baker were issued U.S. Patent No. 7,931 for a machine that used this stitch. The Grover and Baker Sewing Machine Co. of Boston, Mass., began manufacturing the machines in 1851, and by 1856 were producing for the home market. “Quilting on a Grover & Baker’s sewing machine, is no trouble at all, and the rapidity with which it is accomplished, enables us to apply it to many things which would cost too much time and labor for hand sewing.” ( The Ladies’ Hand Book of Fancy Ornamental Work Florence Hartley, Philadelphia, 1859.)
The most elaborate quilting of the 19th century was done by hand. It is unusual that the unknown maker of this quilt used a machine to stitch the design of each square through two layers of cotton fabric. The design areas were then stuffed with cotton fibers. The squares were sewn together by hand to make the quilt top, and an overall lining was added. The three layers were quilted by hand along each side of the seams where the squares of the quilt top were joined.
By 1870, the Grover and Baker double-thread, chain-stitch was being replaced by a lockstitch. The lockstitch machines used one-third the amount of thread and made less bulky seams. The lockstitch remains the standard stitch of home sewing machines to this day.
The motifs on this all-white quilt top are similar to those found on many of the colorful appliqué quilts of the mid-19th century. Although more complex than most of the work for which the new machines were used, the quilt’s design and the use of the Grover and Baker stitch suggest that this is an early example of machine quilting.
This intriguing quilt, “Solar System,” was made by Ellen Harding Baker (1847-1886), an intellectually ambitious Iowa wife and mother. It came to the National Museum of American History in 1983, a gift from her granddaughters.
The maker, Sarah Ellen Harding, was born in Ohio or Indiana, in 1847, and married Marion Baker of Cedar County, Iowa, on October 10, 1867. In the 1870s they moved to Johnson County, where Marion had a general merchandise business in Lone Tree. Ellen had seven children before she died of tuberculosis on March 30, 1886.
The wool top of this applique quilt is embellished with wool-fabric applique, wool braid, and wool and silk embroidery. The lining is a red cotton-and-wool fabric and the filling is of cotton fiber. The design of this striking and unusual quilt resembles illustrations in astronomy books of the period. Included in the design is the appliqued inscription, “Solar System,” and the embroidered inscription, “E.H. Baker.” Mrs. Baker probably began this project in 1876, as per the “A.D.1876” in the lower right corner.
The “Solar System” quilt was probably completed in 1883 when an Iowa newspaper reported that “Mrs. M. Baker, of Lone Tree, has just finished a silk quilt which she has been seven years in making.” The article went on to say that the quilt “has the solar system worked in completely and accurately. The lady went to Chicago to view the comet and sun spots through the telescope that she might be very accurate. Then she devised a lecture in astronomy from it.” This information was picked up the by the New York Times (September 22, 1883).
The large object in the center of the quilt is clearly the Sun, and the fixed Stars are at the outer edges. Around the Sun are the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, and Mars. Not shown are the two moons of Mars that were first seen, at the U.S. Naval Observatory in 1877. The four curious clumps beyond Mars represent the asteroids. The first asteroid (Ceres) had been found in 1801, and with the proliferation of ever more powerful telescopes, ever more objects came into view. Then there is Jupiter with its four moons first seen by Galileo, and Saturn with its rings. The six moons orbiting Uranus are somewhat confusing, as astronomers did not agree on the actual number. Neptune has the one moon discovered by an English astronomer in 1846, shortly after the planet itself was seen.
The large item in the upper left of the quilt is surely the naked-eye comet that blazed into view in the spring of 1874, and that was named for Jerome Eugene Coggia, an astronomer at the Observatory in Marseilles. Americans too took note. Indeed, an amateur astronomer in Chicago put a powerful telescope on the balcony of the Interstate Industrial Exposition Building (1872-1892), a large glass structure recently erected along the shore of Lake Michigan, and offered to show Coggia’s Comet to citizens of and visitors to the Windy City.
The New York Times described Mrs. Baker’s intention to use her quilt for pedagogical purposes as “somewhat comical”---but it was clearly behind the times. Most Americans knew that women were teaching astronomy and other sciences in grammar schools, high schools and colleges, in communities across the country. Mrs. Baker, for her part, may have been inspired by the fact that the famed Maria Mitchell, professor at Vassar College, had brought four students and piles of apparatus, to Burlington, Iowa, to observe a solar eclipse in August 1869.
Square box with glass top; contents a sample of raw wool; appears unscoured. Listed on the catalog card as "1 specimen, Coarse wool Shantung, China Chinese Centennial Comm., 1876. Chinese Customs.
Pre-1863 design. Wool bunting pennant flag. White field with a blue border at the hoist edge. In the center of the flag is a red five-point star applique. White heading of bast fiber. All stitching done by hand.
This Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) cap was worn by John Doran-Donahue during organization meetings. The GAR and its counterpart, the United Confederate Veterans, were organizations in which veterans and their families joined to remember the dead and salute the living. These groups were an important facet of veteran life that supplanted wartime camaraderie.
This is one of three ventriloquist dummies that belonged to Frederick Lamb. This figure, made of wood and painted black, has a hand carved head, a hinged jaw, glass eyes, and carved hands and feet. Her body is made of a soft cotton stuffing material, and she has a hole in her back in order to operate the pole that manipulates the body. She is wearing a white cotton petticoat under a red cotton dress made of bandana material and dons a pair of child's lace up leather shoes. Only remnants of soft wool fibers remain on her head to simulate hair. It is unclear if Lamb actually made the figure or adapted it for his own use.
Born in 1883, in Nashville Tennessee, Lamb began his career at 12 years old when he ran away from home and joined a carnival. He traveled with carnivals, side shows and circuses for almost 75 years. He toured with a number of small traveling circuses and performed in Paris and England, where he performed for Queen Victoria.
Lamb's talents included ventriloquism, magic, puppetry, and a repertoire of black face comedy skits. Lamb was exceptionally talented in that he was a double ventriloquist; he had both dummies talking to each other and to him at the same time. Later in life he traveled through Appalachia and coal mining communities in Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina to provide entertainment for children and adults living in remote areas.
