Historic Kitchen and 19th Century Objects – A Virtual Exhibition
Come step inside the Putnam History Museum Kitchen and 19th Century Objects exhibition! Each week we will post different item groupings and individual descriptions to pique your curiosity.
What items are still in your home today? What items are more historic? You get to decide as you interact and explore the items in the Putnam History Museum from the comfort of your own home.
Many thanks to PHM Summer Intern Lexi Echelman for preparing this virtual exhibition!
This exhibition is made possible in part by a grant from the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley and Teaching the Hudson Valley.
Week 12: Large Wood and Metal Tools
Welcome to the last installment of Putnam History Museum’s Online Object Exhibition!
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Adze and Shingling Hatchet
Green Ship Lantern
New England Broad Axe
Red Ship Lantern
Want to know more about these tools and how they relate to log cabins in the American narrative? Check out this link to understand the history of log cabins and presidents like Theodore Roosevelt popularized them in the modern imagination today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBs1o19JLNg
Interested in learning more about how the ship lanterns work? Check out this video on boating protocols today and see how ship lanterns like the ones in our collection played a role in following these guidelines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWll3pASjtM
Week 11: Fireplace Items
Snuggle up to the fireplace for our eleventh installment of the Putnam History Museum’s Online Objects Exhibition delivered to your home (and imagine colder days ahead after this heat wave)! Please remember that each week we will pose different item groupings and individual descriptions to pique your curiosity.
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Grain Motif Decorative Object
Pot Hanging hooks for a Fireplace Swing Arm
Seth Thomas Mantle Clock
Tea Kettle
Washington Inaugural Axe
Want to learn more about the myth surrounding George Washington’s chopping of the cherry tree? Check out this video from the Mount Vernon Historical Site to learn about the impetus for creating this story and the art surrounding this legendary myth: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/facts/myths/george-washington-and-the-cherry-tree-myth/
Interested in learning more about Seth Thomas clocks like the one in the Putnam History Museum’s collection? Check out this video about Grand Central Terminal’s information clock and learn how Seth Thomas’ company designed its majestic glow and aesthetic for New York City and state: https://www.timesticking.com/grand-central-terminal-clock/
Week 10: Large Wooden Furniture
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Child’s Sleigh
Harness Maker’s Workbench
Highchair of Gouverneur Kemble Warren
Label on Highchair of Gouverneur Kemble Warren
Want to know more about the man behind the high chair. Governeur Warren Kemble was a Civil War hero and notable for helping the Union Army in the North gain the upper hand in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Check out this link for more information: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/gouverneur-k-warren
Interested in learning more about national monuments in New York City and State? Check out this link to see a statue of Gouverneur Warren Kemble and give back your local park: https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/B040/monuments/1648
Week 9: Laundry and Clothes Cleaning Tools
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Yarn Weasel
Umbrella Swift
Small Washboard
Check out this video of an antique yarn weasel in action! And the “pop” in “pop goes the weasel.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3kzYWeQE4
Do you have a washboard at home? Try washing some clothes in a bucket using the washboard — it’s quite the workout! You may also enjoy this video of the Washboard Music Festival in Ohio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAec7gBoeUQ
Week 8: Large Wooden and Ceramic Containers
For our eighth installment of the 19th Century Objects Exhibit, staff at the Putnam History Museum will showcase large wooden and ceramic containers that held and performed a myriad of tasks around the house.
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Barrel Butter Churn
Covered Pantry Storage Canister Box
Specially Designed Water Bucket
Stoneware Jug
Want to learn about the science of making butter? Check out this link for information on the science behind butter churning and seeing some historic machines at work: https://milkyday.com/blog/2019/08/27/how-does-a-butter-churn-work/
Interested in learning more about the water bucket and the development of indoor bathrooms in New York City and State? Explore this video and discover how legislation passed to mandate indoor toilets for certain domiciles in the early 1900s: https://www.6sqft.com/life-in-new-york-city-before-indoor-toilets/
Week 7: Glass Jars and Ceramic Containers
For this week, we will look at ceramic and glass bottling devices meant to hold a variety of spring waters from the area as well as stronger liquids for different occasions. The bottling designs and the materials alike help describe daily life in Putnam County in the 1800s and early 1900s.
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Black Cherry Wine Bottle
Brown Jug
Glass Jar with Wood Interior Panels
Mount Tarus Spring Wattle Bottle
Tan Jug
Want to know about how seltzer developed in the United States, and in the bottles similar to those in our collections? Check out this video here and learn as well where the words “spa” and “seltzer” come from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrJrq4-Jn4Y
Want to get a taste of the bottled beverages common to New York City and state in the early 1900s and late 1800s? Check out this link to learn about the history of the chocolate egg cream and learn that it has neither egg nor cream in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66DkiQ0fvPI
Week 6: Circular Pantry Containers
Welcome to the sixth installment of the Putnam History Museum Kitchen and 19th Century Objects exhibition. Each week we will pose different item groupings and individual descriptions to pique your curiosity.
What items are still in your home today? What items are more historic? You get to decide as you interact and explore the items in the Putnam History Museum from the comfort of your own home.
This week we will look at different container types used to hold a variety of foods (butter, dried meats, pickled vegetables), as well as wooden kitchen matches or pills. Do these types of containers sound like something that may be in your kitchen?
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Metal Containers
Pantry Boxes
Stoneware Crock
For teachers or creative writers: helping your students use and understand adjectives, or doing a unit on historical fiction? Check out this link from Mr. Nussbaum on activities to engage active learners in understanding jobs in colonial America like apothecaries, who used certain jars to hold and prescribe medicinal remedies:https://mrnussbaum.com/apothecary
Want to learn more about the history of matches that were placed in containers like the metal one in our collections? A variety of chemical bases came before the safety matches today, so perhaps explore this link and develop a historical fiction idea around the discovery of matches: http://www.historyofmatches.com/matches-history/history-of-matches/
Week 5: Cookware Supplies
Our fifth adventure takes us to historic cookware used to both decorate and prepare the foods in one’s home. Please see the interactive below and feel free to let us know if any of our more unique items are in your kitchen (or if you want them to be).
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Grain Etching Butter Mold
Oval Wooden Trenchers
Rolling Pins
Spoons
Strainers
Water Jug
Wooden Stirrers
Make your own DIY butter using this video and find ways to craft your own molds to stamp your creation (and perhaps become an established butter making in the process): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fcKpKty76s
Want to embody some colonial American mindsets for your kitchen? Explore this video of a retired San Diego school teacher making a wooden spoon from a tree branch, which was exactly what most families did in less industrialized centers in the 1800s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWj6rnrRXms
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Week 4: Functional Metal Handheld Tools
This week we have an assortment of unique handheld items serving a variety of purposes in the kitchens and homes of the 1800s. Most of them highlight the differences between their time and ours. Many of the items, however, do serve a familiar purpose that is functional for the time.
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Branding Iron
Candle Molds
Hand Fluter
Heavy Duty Graters
Meat Juice Press
Mortar and Pestle
Tobacco Cutter
Traveler (also known as a distance measuring wheel)
Did you know that beeswax was not the only type of material used to make candles? There are many different types of bases to make different types of candles for each occasion. Parrafin wax is but one of many examples that you can check out at this link: https://www.apsleyaustralia.com/blogs/posts/the-history-of-candles
Want to know more about the meat juice press, how it works, and what ailments it cured? Explore this video from the Oshawa Museum in Canada to see specific medical records (like beef tea) were critical for providing iron and other nutrients for patients after surgery or for soldiers overseas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX7LbYGw5n0
Week 3: Handheld Metal Items
Thank you for joining us again in the next installment of the Putnam History Museums’s online exhibition of household items in our collection.
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Historic Nails
Tea Kettle
Trivet (or a metal buffer between a hot beverage and table)
Curious about learning how to date a historic house in your neighborhood or perhaps your own home? Check out this 1 page poster from the Preservation Collaborative. They have a design to show how nail designs have changed particularly in the 1800s, and architects will use this method to try to date construction periods for certain historic structures: http://www.preservation-collaborative.com/pdfresources/ResearchingHomeTechnology.pdf
Want to learn more about tea and how what travelers in China did before putting certain leaves into boiling water? Explore this video on the history of tea in China and how it became a well-known drink amongst empires like Great Britain and other world cultures. It has quite a history to it, both positive and profound in the wars and commerce this beverage caused: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaLvVc1sS20
Week 2: Small Wood and Metal Hand Tools
Welcome to the second installment on showcasing the unique treasures in the Putnam History Museum’s historic kitchen exhibit. Today’s items focus on working in the stables with cattle or other such animals in the historic Hudson Valley! Strangely enough, in most households in the area during the nineteenth century children usually had to do this work alongside their families. These tools are then common for all folks of the household to use.
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Gambrel
Horse Shoes
Sleigh Bells
Vegetable Pounders
To add onto the description about horseshoes in the United States and the rise of the game as a global phenomena, please see this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjH56h-USVw
Can you think of any applications for putting this and last week’s post as a start to historical fiction stories? We at PHM are excited to see if anyone can think about what it would be like for children to both play and work alongside their families or even catch prey and use the gambrel to suspend it. For basic plans on how to further develop creative writing prompts, please check out this link: https://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/thecurriculumcorner456/historical-fiction-resources/
Week 1: Leisure and Play Items
We will start with a subject kids and adults alike love and remember: Toys!
Explore the objects below by clicking on the white circles. If for some reason they are not appearing, please refresh your page and try again. This week’s featured items include:
Children’s Wampum Loom
Flower Box Container
Historic Ice Skate
Little Eva Stove
Marbles and Dolls
Rush Basket
Want to learn more about toys like marbles and dolls in colonial America up to the present? Check out this brief video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Q_J3XEG5Q
For the trivia fans out there, feel free to explore this other short video on the brief history of ice skating to see other models of ice skates and its uses from the past to today. It will surely help with some fun facts to share during the next winter olympics! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpVfyDoKARs