Object of the Week: Bicycles in Medford, OR

Columbia Model 45

Pope Manufacturing Company

The "Golden Age" of bicycling in the 1890s saw a sudden and unprecedented rise in bicycling across the United States. Urban streets and country lanes alike were filled with men and women riding these new contraptions for leisure, health, and transportation. This Columbia Model 45 safety bicycle was owned by Medford photographer R. V. Beall Jr. Manufactured by the Pope Manufacturing Company in Hartford, CT in 1898, this bicycle was designed for a man, show by its high crossbar, while a ladies bicycle would feature a dropped frame to allow her to wear long skirts while riding.

Columbia Model 41, Women's Bicycle

Safety Bicycle, 1898
Metal, wood, leather, rubber
1994.068

Object of the Week: The Peace Flask

This Batty Peace Flask was one of the most popular of the bag-shaped, rifle-size powder flasks of the mid-1800s. It's referred to as a "Peace Flask" because the embossed image, while worn here, features a pair of clasped hands surrounded by stars. The Peace Flask design was first manufactured in 1844 and reproduced in 1847 and 1857, and many American troops carried them in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. This particular flask was found in a cabin on the James Martin and Ed Tucker farm, near Brownsboro in the Lake Creek area, and a U.S. soldier may have used it in the Rogue River area.


Powder flask
Copper
Donated by Dr. Bert R. Elliot
2649

Lake Creek Community Forum

Don't forget - the next public forum (and potluck!) for History: Made by You will take place on Tuesday, September 20 at 5:30 at the Lake Creek Historical Society! Everyone is welcome to attend, even if you're not from Lake Creek - come share your opinions about community changes and issues!

More information on History: Made by You is available on our website.

Object of the Week - Diamond Dye Cabinet

Exterior, SOHS cabinet

Interior, SOHS cabinet

This dye cabinet boasts that "It's easy to dye with Diamond Dyes." An image of a woman cleanly and gracefully dyeing brilliantly colored fabric supports this claim. Another dye cabinet, made by the same company, instead featured an image of girls, boys, and women dancing with brightly colored fabrics. [1] What do these two images say about advertising techniques and class differences?

From Cowan Auctions

Diamond Dye cabinet
Wood, paint, tin
Museum Purchase
1982.4.19

[1] "Diamond Dye, Chromolithographed & Oak Cabinet" from Cowan Auctions, http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?ItemId=19192, accessed September 7, 2011.

Scarecrow-Making Workshops at Hanley Farm!

Come to Hanley Farm, and learn how to make scarecrows!

In preparation for the farm's October Scarecrow Fest, the farm is hosting scarecrow-making workshops. With direction and guidance from our expert scarecrow-maker, you can make your own, with workshops beginning at 11 a.m. and continuing hourly until 4 p.m. Take your work of art home with you, leave it at the farm for display, or enter it in our October scarecrow contest! Workshop tickets will be available on-site for $10 and include all supplies.

Fruit Picking Pail - Object of the Week

John S. Barnett of Central Point, OR patented this fruit pail design in December 1910 [1]. A 1916 advertisement for the "Barnett Fruit Picking Pail" claimed "No Bruised Fruit if you use the Famous Barnett Pan," due to its canvas-lined bottom inside the galvanized iron pail [2]. Northwest Fence and Iron Works of Portland, OR sold them for $1.50 each [3]. How does this compare with fruit picking systems today?

Fruit Picking Pail, c. 1915

Galvanized iron, canvas

Donated by C. B. Corby

1965.118.5

[1] John S. Barnett, "Fruit Pickers Receptacle," US Patent 978,429. Filed February 16, 1910, and issued December 13, 1910. Google Patents, http://www.google.com/patents?id=1a9OAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed August 30, 2011.

[2] "Barnett Fruit Picking" in Better Fruit XI, no. 3 (September 1916), 30. http://www.archive.org/stream/betterfruit11wash/betterfruit11wash_djvu.txt, accessed August 30, 2011.

[3] Ibid.

Advertisement from The Oregon Grower 3-5 (1921). http://books.google.com/books?id=HclNAAAAYAAJ, accessed August 30, 2011.

Object of the Week!

Would you decorate with hair? The Holland family did in the late 1800s - Mrs. Mary Holland and her daughter Mary Lorina Hall collected hair from every family member to use in this wreath. Curled into many recognizable forms, the hair takes the shape of flowers and plants.

Hair wreath

Hair, wire

3527.1