Fresh Cut

            There’s something about the smell and sight of a freshly cut lawn that brings memories of summertime and sunshine to many. The practice of keeping lawns freshly cut for the duration of the warm months may be fairly recent, but the activity of mowing lawns is not.

            In the 1830s lawn mowers were invented and put to good use. Mainly used for keeping sports fields under control and play ready, some reel mowers were purchased by those with large gardens that needed to be kept ever so perfect, like those at Oxford Colleges. Eventually, more thinking and tweaking took place until there were mowers large enough to be used by farmers and drawn by horses. Scythes were replaced by these more efficient mowers.

At some point in time the rotary mower equipped with a motor came into play, and now most of us make use of a ride-on or push mower that has a motor. We doubt very few people would want to use one of these old push reel mowers to mow their lawns on a hot afternoon – especially those of us with large lawns.

            Our push reel mower consists of a wooden shaft and handle, three twisted blades, and a barred drum for catching and throwing grass clippings. Marked in raised print on the cast frame is: "New Easy Lawn Mower 1888 Blair MFG. Springfield, Mass. U. S. A.  Pat'd Oct. 7, 1879, Nov. 16, 1880, Sept. 16, 1884". It may not seem very appealing to you but, with the rise in HST coming, this push lawn mower that requires nothing but man power could be a pretty economical choice. Not to say that we’d put our artifact on loan, but it may be worth looking into finding one of these!

            We've included a short clip of the push mower moving to give a better idea of how this would have cut grass! Basically the spinning bars would push the grass up against the low blade-like-bar, and that would                                               allow the grass to be cut.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/05/23/in-praise-of-the-push-reel-mower/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn_mower

http://americangardening.net/victorian-vase-appeared-in-1888-lawn-mower-ad/

Bad Hair Day

            After being extremely busy setting up our new exhibit, we're back with more strange and wonderful things to share with you! Today’s post is of something that many never would have laid their eyes on before. It may strike you as very odd at first, but following this post you may realize just how common these wreaths are. We would like to share with you a little bit about the hair wreath in our collection. To make matters even more interesting, we actually happened upon a website for a museum in Missouri dedicated completely to hair art.

            While the hair part may not sit very well with you, the wreath itself is quite a piece of art. It is intricately designed and put together – it just seems odd that it is made from someone’s hair. The hair for this wreath was from a relative of the artifact’s donor. Her hair was very long and as it loosened and was brushed out, it was kept in a container. When she passed, her daughter fastened the hair with beads and wire to make this wreath. A quote we have accompanying the artifact’s information suggests the commonness of this art, “The hair, sorted as to length and shade, was then woven into many different designs. Fine wire was used as a foundation for weaving flowers, stems and tendrils. Tiny beads were set in the flower centers." – Antiques Journal, May 1962.

            As you can see, as strange as it may seem to, one – keep somebody’s hair, and two – make a piece of artwork out of it – the whole thing was fairly normal. In fact, there was a time when many pieces of jewelry were assembled from hair (we also have an earring made from hair!), and then worn by men and women alike. We were able to find out on the website for Leila’s Hair Museum why the wreath was made in a horseshoe shape and not completely enclosed - the open ends of the wreath allowed for more hair to be added in the event that the family grew. As mentioned above, the information that we have states that the wreath was made from the hair of the donor’s relative, but maybe it is actually a mixture of different family members’ hair.

The hair wreath as part of the "Wayside Inn"
 in our Steamship Exhibit

            

          The best part of this whole thing? This hair wreath is on display as part of our Steamship Exhibit until the end of the summer! So, if you would like to check out this very odd, yet interesting artifact and some other neat objects you are welcome to stop in, as we are officially open this week! Our hours are Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm for the whole summer.

http://www.leilashairmuseum.net/index.html

Razor Sharp

            We have been extremely busy this week starting the process of setting up our new Steamship exhibit, and so we apologize if our hidden history posts have been a little on the short side, or if we miss a day next week! Our plan is to be open for June 27^th, so we are under a bit of a time crunch getting everything prepared and in place. Our post today is about a sharp little object used by many men for many years.

Assembled perhaps sometime during the early 1900s, this straight razor belonged to the grandfather of the artifact’s donor. Writing this as a female individual, it is hard to believe ever having used such a thing, but even harder to imagine someone having used this razor knowing what is available today. Turns out, though, men started using this style of razor in the 1600s and it was still ongoing in the 1900s, so I guess it must have been fairly safe – or maybe it was easy enough to learn the trick to shaving! I can only imagine watching someone attempt to use one of these and the next thing you know a gash appearing right across their cheek!

This straight razor came to us in this stylish, yet still masculine, maroon case with the trademark, “The Clauss Shear Works, Fremont Ohio, USA”, during the 1970s. A company started in the late 1800s by two german brothers, it quickly developed into much more. Starting with only five employees and a handful of products to be manufactured, the company merged with Henkel Company in 1919 to form Henkel-Clauss. The merged company had more than 1,000 employees and the largest payroll in the United States in 1919.

            The blades, like anything else with a metal edge, work best when they are sharp. Apparently, the only way one could cut themselves is if they were moving the blade in the same parallel fashion as the blade itself sits. Even though this may be true, I don’t know if I would trust someone else, or even myself to place that – very sharp – blade near my face!

            Do you have or know anyone that has one of these razor blades? Better yet, do you still use a blade like this?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clauss_Cutlery_Company

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_razor

Noble Steed

           It is likely that most of us have the image in our heads of horses being tied to hitching posts outside of local shops in old western movies. The stereotypical cowboy would skid to a stop in front of an old country store in the bustling town and tie his noble steed to a post before going about his business. While this may be what most people believe to have been the norm, there was actually another way to secure your equine partner before leaving them alone to take care of business.  

            That other way was a horse anchor. Yes, you read that right, a horse anchor. And yes, it is exactly what you are trying to picture – a big, metal something that rested on the ground for you to secure your horse to. Although the image I described above was that of a single riding horse being tied, the horse anchor was more typically used for horses drawing a buggy or carriage. The weight would be placed before the horse, while he was tied securely to the chunk of metal. I guess you then either knew your horse didn’t have strong enough neck and shoulder muscles to move that anchor, or you hoped the horse wasn’t concerned enough to try and move it.

            The horse anchor in our collection is actually made of lead. It resembles a lead box, as it is all hollowed out, that has a wire attached to it that would be used to tie reins or a rope around. (Perhaps the anchor was hollowed out so one could toss some grain or treats into it for their horse to nibble away on?) The anchor appears to be homemade, which we can assume is true, as many times a local blacksmith would whip one together, or perhaps the horse owner himself depending on how handy he was.

            We can’t offer you much more for details on this treasure, as we don’t know too much ourselves. Again, though, we just wanted to highlight another interesting part of our history that most people would probably overlook as it would have simply been part of an everyday happening, rather than some extraordinary artifact from a fascinating day in history.

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/horse-anchor-weight-tether-equestrian-farm

Royal Execution

            The things we find here at the Kings County Museum! Today’s post highlights an artifact that we happened across while working on our database - one that widened our eyes. We have in our possession a copy of the warrant issued to execute King Charles I.

‘Facsimile of Warrant to Execute King Charles I’. The warrant was published by Publishers, Publicity Service, Toronto. The document dated January 1648 has 58 signatures affixed to it with each commissioner’s individual seal. Charles I, King of England, was tried, convicted of High Treason and sentenced by the court to be beheaded.

            Charles I was born in 1600 to King James VI of Scotland. At the age of three he moved to England following his father’s inheritance of the throne of England. He was married to the fifteen-year-old Bourbon Princess of France, Henrietta Maria in 1625 (In case you missed it - while she was 15, Charles was 25!). In 1626 Charles’s coronation took place on the second of February. Over the years Charles was a part of many conflicts, while not necessarily making or keeping some friends along the way. He ran into issues with other countries and religions, to put it simply.  

Finally, in January of 1649 it all came to an end when he was convicted of treason against England. His trial began on January 20^th at Westminster Hall and six days later he was condemned to death. 59 of the 68 commissioners present signed Charles’s death warrant. On the 29^th his children were allowed to visit with him and say their final goodbyes. Then, on the afternoon of January 30^th, the King was publicly executed.

Attached is a link to the United Kingdom Parliament page that goes into detail about this warrant and the proceedings that took place. Turns out that this warrant for Charles’s execution was later used to track down those who had signed it and prosecute the regicides for the same thing King Charles faced – treason. The commissioners who had signed the warrant and had passed away were dug up from the grave, and their bodies hung.

Not all of our artifacts have a sweet story from the good ole days to share – and this would be one! Even though it is a bit of a gory story, it is still an interesting piece of our collection. We hope we didn’t instill any awful images of beheadings or hangings in your mind!

http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/civilwar/collections/deathwarrant/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England

 

Divine Wine

            This post is for any of our wine fanatic followers. Even though we lack some information on the history and background of today’s post we still wanted to highlight the following artifact for interest’s sake.

            The artifact that we want to share with you is a wine filter marked, “The Paragon Filter, Crown Filter Co. Glasgow”. This intriguing artifact seems to have come from abroad, as it is also marked “Port-Dundas, Glasgow, Pottery CoY.” Unfortunately, like many artifacts in our collection, we don’t have a history of where and when this artifact was used. It can be hard to know everything about artifacts donated to the museum, as many times the donor is a descendant of the artifact’s original owner and they only know to whom it belonged. So, we can’t always tell you a complete story for this reason, but we’ll do our best to fill you in with some other details about this wine filter.

            Port-Dundas Pottery Company started in 1828 and closed in 1932 after having various owners and going under the name of James Miller & Company for some time. The company, from what we can find, manufactured beer bottles. It’s assumed that while in the business of beer bottle manufacturing, Port-Dundas Pottery must have taken up wine filter manufacturing as well. (We have attached the link below where we found this information and it includes some specifics for those interested.)

            While we had trouble coming across any information pertaining to this particular wine filter, we thought it fitting to share a brief reasoning as to why filtering wines takes place. Filtration is not only for removing the cloudiness from young wines, but it is also important in controlling the microbes (yeast and bacteria) that are in the wines that could ferment if not removed. Not that we are wine-making experts by any means, but our research tells us that filtration can clarify a young wine faster than fining can. This process is important for having a wine that is not only clear, but stable and won’t change hugely while in storage overtime.

            While our wine filter is missing its cover and also the filtration part from inside, we have attached a link to a Paragon Filter we found for sale online to give you an idea of what it would have looked like in its prime: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/the-paragon-crown-filter-co-glasgow-stoneware

            We hope you find this artifact as interesting as we did! What we think makes it even more fascinating is that wine filtering still takes place today (unlike rug beating), and so even though methods and equipment may have advanced, filtration - a historic process in wine-making - is still necessary.

http://www.sodasandbeers.com/SABBottleManufBeerSoda.htm

http://www.wallafaces.com/a-history-of-the-glass-wine-bottle/

http://www.enologyinternational.com/filtration/filtration.html

           

Spring Cleaning

           Commonly known as a rug or carpet beater, this cleaning tool was also known for being in the hand of parents disciplining naughty children. Without a doubt this would leave quite a mark! It may even have been worse than a traditional spanking. Although maybe handy when it came to reprimanding children, rug beaters weren’t actually invented for that purpose. Like their name suggests, rug beaters were invented to beat rugs.

Once rugs and carpets became popular in homes there had to be a method for cleaning these massive amounts of fabric, as the cost of vacuums was much too expensive and brooms didn’t always cut it, rug beaters were soon put to use. Carpets and rugs would be draped over a railing or clothes line outside, and an unlucky someone got to beat the fabric with a rug beater. The intricate design of the head of the rug beater almost makes you cringe at the thought of beating it against something, yet the holey designs allowed for the dust and dirt to leave the fabric without harming the carpet or rug.

Rug beaters were very popular up until the 20^th century when carpet sweepers and vacuum cleaners became more affordable. The rug beater in our collection is made of rattan – a type of palm tree that has stems with a diameter of 2-5 cm. Rattan is solid, and along with its small diameter, it is an ideal choice for these beaters. Our rug beater was donated sometime in the early 1970s – the donor is unknown, though, and therefore we cannot be certain where it was used, but it seems to be in fairly good condition so perhaps it wasn’t used all that often.

Check out these old catalogues with beaters and sweepers advertised – prices sure have changed! http://www.rugbeaters.org/bingham.html

http://www.rugbeaters.org/worthington.html

A few links we used that you may like to check out!  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpet_beater
http://www.objectlessons.org/work-and-innovation-victorians/carpet-beaters-victorian-original/s64/a1003/
http://www.rugbeaters.org/pictures.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpet_sweeper