Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutWS Item 01 - Nash Farm Interpretive Plan PresentationMEMO TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: ROGER NELSON, CITY MANAGER MEETING DATE: OCTOBER 5, 2004 SUBJECT: WORK SESSION - NASH FARM INTERPRETIVE PLAN PRESENTATION Historic Preservation, with the assistance of Consultant Lonn Taylor, will give a presentation of the Interpretive Plan for the Historic Thomas Nash Farm. Mr. Taylor will provide an overview and details of the Plan that would guide the restoration of the property as a farm of the early 1900's. The Plan is designed to implement the Grapevine Heritage Foundation's Mission for the Nash Farm: "To preserve, protect, and visually reflect the significance of our farming and agricultural heritage so that future generations may appreciate and experience a way of life lived by settlers of the Grape Vine Prairie." /wd k September 28, 2004 (4:20PM) NASH FARM GRAPEVINE HERITAGE FOUNDATION INTERPRETIVE PLAN August 2004 Lorin Taylor P.O. Box 1738 Fort Davis, Texas 79734 432-426-2901 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction History of Agriculture in the Grapevine Area Interpretive Philosophy Desired Audiences Available Interpretive Spaces Exhibit Area A: Central Hallway Exhibit Area B: East Room Exhibit Area C: West Room Learning Center Kitchen Barn Equipment Shed Pole Barn Cemetery Crops Interpretive Tools Public Programming Staffing Needs Appendix 1: Furnishing Plan for Kitchen Bibliography 1 3 13 14 15 16 17 19 20 23 26 27 28 28 28 29 30 30 31 70 NASH FARM INTERPRETIVE PLAN 1. Introduction. -I- The Nash Farm is a 5.2 acre site located in a residential area six blocks west of the main street of Grapevine, Texas, which is an incorporated municipality with a population of 46,188 in the northeastern corner of Tarrant County, Texas. At present, the farmstead consists of a two- story frame seven -room house, constructed about 1880 and extensively re -modeled in the late 1940s; a barn built about 1907, and a family cemetery, on 5.2 acres of grassland and timber. The farmstead is owned by the City of Grapevine and administered by that city's Historic - Preservation Division through the Grapevine Heritage Foundation, a private non-profit entity. The Foundation wishes to use the farmstead as an educational facility to interpret the agricultural history of the Grapevine area, an area which, due to its proximity to Dallas and Fort Worth, has become rapidly urbanized since 1970. The Foundation has developed a mission statement for the Nash Farm which will guide the interpretive plan: The Grapevine Heritage Foundat'ion's mission for the Nash Farm is to preserve, protect, and visually reflect the significance of our farming and agricultural heritage, so that future generations may appreciate and experience a way of life lived by settlers of the Grape Vine Prairie. The Foundation has also enumerated goals that will provide a framework for the interpretive pian. These are: -2- 1. Restore and preserve Nash Farm as an educational facility. 2. Preserve the property and the land. 3. Restore the property to recommendations of the Historic Structures Report and seek National Register designation, 4. Interpret/present to visitors the early history of farm life as experienced on the Grape Vine Prairie. 5. Interpret/present to visitors the grounds as a working faun. 6. Restore/renovate the interior to be compatible with the period of significance (1880- 1910). 7. Provide income opportunities for the maintenance of the buildings and grounds. 8. Partner with other organizations for programs/activities on the property. A day -long meeting between members of the Foundation board and the consultant in Grapevine on February 17, 2004 produced several refinements of and additions to these goals which will also be included in the interpretive plan. These are (1) the construction of a new 900 sq. ft. building on the property (referred to as the "pole barn") with a seating capacity of 100 (or 75 at tables) that could serve as an orientation center for visitor groups and a rental facility for meetings, luncheons, and banquets; (2) the restoration and furnishing of the kitchen to c. 1900 and its use as an educational facility in which to interpret farm foodways of that period; (3) the use of one of the front rooms downstairs as a meeting space; (4) the provision of a space for temporary exhibits; (5) the use of the barn to house livestock; and (6) the construction of a metal shed on the property to house a representative collection of farm equipment that would have been used in the area between 1900 and 1952. -3- 2a. History f Agriculture in the Grapevine Area Grapevine lies on the boundary between the East Cross Timbers and the Blackland Prairies of north -central Texas. While the soil of the East Cross Timbers is sandy and well suited to vegetable and melon farming, the Blackland Prairies are made up of black waxy soils that reach from the Red River south to San Antonio, covering nearly 25,000 square miles. These soils are well suited for the production of cotton, corn, and, in their northern reaches, wheat. Between 1870 and 1900 the Blackland Prairies became one of the world's great cotton producing regions. Anglo-American settlement in the Grapevine area of Tarrant County began in the late 1840s and early 1850s. The first settlers were from the upper southern states of Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Thomas Jefferson Nash and his wife Elizabeth Mouser Nash fit this pattern, both being born in Washington County (later renamed Marion County) Kentucky and arriving in Grapevine sometime between 1854 and 1859. The upper south, according to cultural geographer Terry Jordan, was culturally a child of southeastern Pennsylvania and grains, especially corn and wheat, formed the backbone of its rural economy, rather than the cotton culture of the lower south. Eventually that type of agriculture took root in the Grapevine area, to be supplanted by the cotton culture of the lower south only after the Civil War. But the earliest farms in the region were subsistence farms consisting of fenced corn fields, kitchen gardens, flocks of chickens, and herds of free -ranging hogs which fattened in the woods during the summer and were rounded up and slaughtered in the fall. This is a type of agriculture that historians have called "safety first" agriculture; that is, the farmers focused on feeding their families first before venturing into the production of cash crops. Many of the first farmers in the Grapevine area owned enough land to cultivate a small cash crop, but they did not have the labor to do that and feed themselves at the -4 - same time, so they concentrated on the production of corn and pork, cabbage and sweet potatoes, turnips and peas, and perhaps kept a milk cow and supplemented their diet by hunting and fishing. An exception to this rule lies with the cultivation of wheat, which was first grown by settlers from the upper south in the Red River Valley as early as 1819, when Thomas Nutall saw it growing there. Nutall said that it yielded 80 bushels to the acre and that fanners offered their surplus for sale at $3.50 per bushel. By 1833 wheat cultivation had spread to the prairies of southern Red River County, a hundred miles or so northeast of Grapevine, and by 1848 Red River County led Texas in wheat production, with 18,000 bushels being produced that year. By 1850, shortly before the Nash family arrived in Grapevine from Kentucky, Red River, Dallas, and Fannin counties had become the center of Texas commercial wheat production. Ten years later, in 1860, they still held the top rank, with Dallas County producing more than 20 bushels of wheat per capita and Fannin and Red River counties producing between 13 and 19. [Terry G. Jordan, "The Imprint of the Upper and Lower South on Mid -Nineteenth Century Teras," Annals of the Association ofAmerican Geographers 57 (December 1967), 679-680]. Unfortunately, the 1860 census records for Tarrant County are not available, but it is highly probable that the Nashes may have been growing wheat as well as subsistence crops in that year. They certainly were by 1870, as the census of agriculture for Tarrant County taken in that year records that they grew 151 bushels of wheat. By 1880 they had increased their wheat production to 302 bushels, grown on 20 acres. Wheat farming in pre -Civil War north Texas followed the pattern of the upper south. Wheat was often planted in cornfields after the corn was harvested, the seed being broadcast on -5- 0 the ground after the stalks were felled and then plowed in. This was usually done between September 1 and October 10. Livestock were permitted to graze in the fields frons December until mid-March. The harvest came in during May. Both harvesting and threshing machinery was in use on Blackland Prairie wheat farms by 1855, and in 1866 there were at least three shops in Dallas manufacturing reapers and threshers. Texas flour reached the market in June, six weeks ahead of northern flour. However, due to the difficulties of transportation, the market was limited largely to government contracts to supply the line of forts on the Texas frontier and the Indian agencies north of the Red River. [Jordan, "Imprint," 681-685] Commercial wheat farming continued to expand in the northern portion of the Blackland Prairies after the Civil War. In 1879 245,000 acres of wheat were planted there, or 65.9% of the state's total wheat crop. By 1899 this had grown to 684,000 acres, but this represented only 67% of the state's total, as the production of wheat in Texas had started to shift to the northern high plains. By 1909 the wheat acreage of the Blackland Prairies had fallen to 110,000 acres. It rose again temporarily during World War I to 687,000 acres, but by 1929 had fallen back again to 231,000 acres, which was only 8% of the state's total wheat acreage. The type of wheat planted on the Blackland Prairie in those years was generally a soft red winter wheat. [Samuel Lee Evans, "Texas Agriculture, 1880-1930," Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1960, pp. 117-120]. Large-scale commercial agriculture could not be carried on in the Grapevine area until the 1870s, when the arrival of railroads in the region made it possible to transport those crops to market. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad, the state's principal north -south line, arrived in nearby Dallas in 1872, and the Texas and Pacific, one of the principal east -west lines, crossed it M there in 1873. The 1870s and 80s were years of tremendous growth and change for Texas, mostly as a result of a railroad network that tied Texas into national and world agricultural markets and made manufactured goods from the north and midwest available in remote rural areas at a fraction of their pre -railroad cost. By 1879 2,240 miles of track had been built in Texas; ten years later, by 1889, 6,000 more miles had been laid and the Blackland Prairies were crossed by both main and . feeder lines connecting San Antonio, Austin, Waco, Dallas, Fort Worth, Sherman, and Denison. Grapevine received its own rail line, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (known as the Cotton Belt Route), in the late 1880s, but by then it had been in close proximity to major lines for fifteen years and had developed its own small complex of grist mills and cotton gins. The rail explosion of the 1870s and 80s brought about a correspondingly dramatic increase in the number of Texas farms and the value of Texas farm products. In 1870 there were 61,125 farms in Texas, with 2,964,836 acres under cultivation. These farms produced 350,628 bales of cotton and 20,544,538 bushels of wheat, with a total value of $49,185,170. Twenty years later, in 1890, the number of fanns had increased to 228,126 with 20,746,215 acres under cultivation. 1,471,242 bales of cotton and 69,112,150 bushels of wheat were raised, for a total value of $111,699,430. The Texas cotton crop increased by 300% during those years. Most of this spectacular growth was the result of bringing new land into production as railroads made it accessible to a rapidly growing population. Some of the sharpest increases in production took place on the Blackland Prairies. Dallas County, for instance, increased its cotton crop from 3,834 bales in 1870 to 21,649 bales in 1880, a gain of 465 percent in ten years. The Nash family took part in this expansion by adding 11 acres of cotton to their wheat farm in 1880 and producing 10 bales of cotton that year. [Randolph B. Campbell, Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 311]. In 1879 the Blackland Prairies had 857,000 acres planted in cotton, or 39% of all of the cotton lands in the state. By 1889 this had increased to 1,578,000 acres or 40.1 % of the state's total; and by 1899 to 2,832,000 acres or 40.6 °%, of the total. The cotton acreage of the Blackland Prairies continued to expand until 1929, when it reached a peak of 4,552,000 acres, but its percentage of the state's total started to decline after 1899 and stood at only 26% in 1929. This was due largely to the opening of the High Plains to — irrigated and mechanized cotton farming in the 1920s and the subsequent shift in Texas cotton production to that region. In 1918, 50,588 bales of cotton were grown on the High Plains; by 1926, 1.1 million bales were produced there. [Evans, "Texas Agriculture, 1880-1930," Table 3-a, pp. 2-3-] The initial context of commercial cotton faiming in the Grapevine area, then, was one of rapid expansion stimulated by railroad building as the region was integrated into the post -Civil War southern cotton kingdom. However, that kingdom was not a particularly healthy one in the years between 1870 and 1900. As it expanded into previously uncultivated areas, the price of land rose, but the price of ginned cotton fell, from an average of 15.5 cents per pound in 1869-71 to 8.1 cents per pound in 1889-91. It continued on a downward trend as increasingly large crops glutted the market each summer until the outbreak of World War I. The situation was aggravated by the method of financing employed throughout the south, called the crop -lien system. Since commercial cotton farmers no longer also practiced subsistence farming, they needed cash with which to purchase food and other necessities for their families throughout the year. Local merchants advanced this cash to them in the foi-rn of store credit in return for a lien on their cotton crop, to be paid off in the fall "when cotton came in." As cotton prices fell more and more, -8 - farmers were unable to pay off these liens at the end of the season, and eventually they lost their farms, the only assets that they owned, to their creditors, and became landless tenant fanners. In 1880, 38% of all Texas farms were worked by tenants; by 1890, 42%; by 1900, 50° The rate of farm tenancy in Texas continued to grow during the 20°i century until by 1930 it had reached 61%. The percentages of fauns worked by tenants in the Blackland Prairies were higher than in the rest of the state - 41% in 1880; 52% in 1890; 62% in 1900; and 66% in 1920,_.._Farm tenancy generally took the form of sharecropping, a system in which the tenant rented land and was advanced seed and sometimes tools and store credit in return for 1/4 of the cotton crop and 1/3 of the corn crop. Landlords exercised strict control over their tenants; in fact some historians have interpreted the sharecropping system, which was ubiquitous across the south, as a means of racial control, since most black farmers were sharecroppers. However, the Blackland Prairies did not have a large African-American population, and in 1926 only 16% of the tenants there were black [Jesse T. Sanders, Farm Ownership and Tenanev in the Black Prairie of Texas. USDA Bulletin No. 1068 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922), pp. 4-5.]. Texas cotton farmers were aware of the evils that resulted from the crop lien system and sought political solutions to remedy them throughout the latter part of the 19"' and the early part of the twentieth centuries. Farmers' organizations, such as the Grange, the Farmers' Alliance, the National Renters' Union, and a third party, the Populists, offered solutions that ranged from cooperative purchasing and marketing to currency reform and a widened franchise. But none were successful. It took the revolution in Texas agriculture that followed World War II to dramatically reduce the tenancy rate and eliminate sharecropping. Large-scale cotton cultivation brought two other problems with it that seemed to be -9- °`i rk' inherent in the cotton plant, rather than a function of the credit system. In order to be profitable, cotton plants had to produce a fiber (called a staple) that was acceptable in length and strength to the textile mills which were the purchasers of each year's crop. The purest strains of cotton produce the best staples. But cotton varieties tend to cross naturally as pollen from blooms is carried by wind or insects, and the staple produced by the crosses is always inferior to that produced by the pure strains. Texas cotton farmers described this phenomenon by saying that cotton varieties "ran out," and they combated it by a constant search for new and improved seed that would produce varieties that would remain pure and produce superior staples. Seed companies marketed a bewildering variety of "improved" cotton seed, and agricultural journals are full of discussions of the rewards and disappointments of various varieties. The second problem was far more serious. It related to the depredations of the boll weevil, an insect whose larvae destroys the bolls of the cotton plant before they can mature and produce fiber. The boll weevil was an immigrant from Mexico and first appeared on the Texas coast in 1894; by 1908 it had spread across the entire cotton -producing area of the state and was inflicting severe damage on the annual cotton crop. The fight against the boll weevil took two forms: the search for an effective insecticide (Paris green was one of the more popular) and the search for a variety of cotton that would mature early enough in the season to escape boll weevil damage. Neither search was entirely successful and cotton farmers finally concluded that the boll weevil could never be eliminated but that its depredations could be controlled by scientific methods of cotton cultivation. The Texas Agricultural Extension Service grew out of the effort to propagate such methods. Because the cotton plant requires intensive cultivation during its growing season and -10 - because its bolls must be handled carefully to avoid damaging their fibers, it has been a labor- intensive crop during most of the time that it has been grown in Texas. Mechanization only came to cotton cultivation and harvesting in the 1950s; before that, most cultivating and harvesting was done by hoe and hand, and mechanization was limited to soil preparation and planting. Horse- or mule -drawn stalls -cutters, turning plows, and lister plows were employed in soil preparation, and various types of animal -powered planters were used to drop seed into the prepared beds. Once the cotton plants were up, one -row or two -row cultivators were used to bar off and dirt up the plants. Weed growth in the rows was removed with hand-held hoes and picking on the Blackland Prairie was done by hand until the 1950s, when the mechanical spindle picker was introduced. Whether a Blackland Prairie farm grew wheat or cotton, or a little of both, corn was a constant crop. Corn was the fuel for the farm's power unit, the horse or the mule; it provided feed for hogs and chickens; and it was the principal ingredient of the fanner's dietary staple, cornbread. The Nashes grew 400 bushels of corn in 1870 and 500 bushels in 1880, and in 1880 their largest acreage in any crop, 30 acres, was in corn. Most of the corn grown in Texas between 1880 and 1930 was of the type known as Dent, of which there are a number of sub -varieties, such as Reid Yellow Dent, Ferguson Yellow Dent, White Pearl, Shoepeg, Tuxpan, Strawberry, Bloody Butcher, and Mosby. Corn was planted between mid-February and April and harvested between July and September, and was generally grown in rows three or four feet apart, with the plants spaced 18 to 24 inches apart. After the ears were harvested, the tops of the stalks were frequently cut for fodder. [Evans, "Texas Agriculture," 95-102.] Most nineteenth-century farmers in the Blackland Prairie kept livestock - indeed, horses, mules, and oxen were the motive power of the farm - and the agricultural censuses of 1870 and 1880 show that the Nashes were no exception. Like most upper southerners, they had both cattle and hogs - 75 head of cattle and 60 hogs in 1870, and 6 head of cattle and 50 hogs ill 1880. The cattle and hogs were raised for their beef and pork, and were usually left to shift for themselves in the woods until fall, when they were rounded up with dogs and slaughtered to provide meat for the winter. Occasionally hogs were fed on corn in the early fall to fatten them before killing, but the more common practice was to leave them to feed on acorns and wild fruits and berries. [Sam Bowers Hilliard, Hog Meat and Hoe Cake (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972), 92-102, 122-130.] The Nashes also had 5 milk cows in 1870 and 6 in 1880; these were probably Jerseys, which were the milk cow of choice for the southern farmer. Their draft animals consisted of 9 horses and 6 oxen in 1870 and 14 horses and 2 mules in 1880. This is consistent with their upper southern background, as upper southerners preferred horses to mules as draft animals and, in the upper southern counties of Texas in 1860, horses outnumbered mules by a ratio of 10:1 [Jordan, "Imprint," 683.] They also kept a small flock of sheep, 50 head in 1870 and 35 in 1880, which was somewhat of an aberration on a Blackland Prairie farm but again was consistent with their upper southern background. We have no record of the Nashes' kitchen garden, but research into southern foodways has shown that the kitchen garden was an indispensable part of the southern farmstead and was often kept planted from March through November. Farmstead gardens were quite large, ranging from a quarter acre up to one or two acres, and in addition some food crops, such as corn and sweet potatoes, were planted as field crops. Widely grown garden crops included cowpeas, turnips, squash, greens, beans, watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, collards, cabbages, green peas, onions, and pumpkins. Farmstead gardens were fenced, usually with picket fences, to reduce the depredations -12 - of rabbits and other wild animals. [Hilliard, Hog Meat and Hoecake, 172-179] 2b. Additional Research. A tightly focused research project on the history of agriculture in the Grapevine area, 1850- 1940, should be undertaken before exhibit scripts are written. This project should make use of the Tarrant and Dallas County censuses of agriculture for 1850-1880, land ownership and tax records in the Grapevine area, other extant records in local depositories, such as the Grapevine, Cedar _ Hill, and Tarrant County Junior College Northeast Campus libraries, and oral histories to determine to what extent the general agricultural trends outlined above applied to the immediate Grapevine area and whether or not the Nash farm was typical of the area. Special attention should be paid to cantaloupe farming in Grapevine in the 1930s; this should probably be the subject of an oral history project, as there seem to be few written sources. This research could be carried out by one of Dr. Randolph ("Mike") Campbell's graduate students at the University of North Texas; Dr. Campbell's specialty is the agricultural history of Texas. He can be reached at Department of History, University of North Texas, P.O. Box 310650, Denton, Texas 76203-0650 (940-565- 3402), e-mail inike aJunt.edu. I have spoken with him about this and he is amenable to the idea. I think that the necessary research could be accomplished in four to six weeks. -13- 0 3. Interpretive Philosophy. The interpretive philosophy that underlies the Nash Farm is rooted in the idea that the purpose of examining the past is to gain a deeper understanding of human nature, and that this can best be done in a museum or historic house setting by examining the processes by which people in the past satisfied their daily needs and the artifacts that those processes produced. The Nash Farm will be a place where visitars of all ages can explore some of the processes of agriculture, animal husbandry, and food preservation and preparation that sustained mankind for tens of thousands of years until they were displaced by urbanization and the industrial revolution. Because this exploration will be active, will appeal to a wide variety of learning styles, and will involve doing as well as looking, Nash Farm will not be an attempt to accurately recreate a house or a farmstead of any particular period, even though one of the interpretive tools employed will be a c. 1900 kitchen. Nash Farm will be a series of spaces where visitors can look at exhibits, participate in docent -directed activities, observe demonstrations, and listen to lectures, all with the goal of gaining an understanding of how agriculture was carried on in the Grapevine area in the late 19"' and early 20" centuries. At the same time, the original structures on the Nash farmstead will be accorded the deference due to historic structures and their integrity will be — respected at all times. All interpretive activities will be researched -based and will be rooted in sound scholarship, and all interpreters will receive thorough training in their subjects and will take a professional approach to their teaching responsibilities. In interpretive activities where the emphasis is on a process, rather than an artifact, reproductions of objects will be employed in order not to damage original artifacts. In order to ensure accuracy in interpretation, an academic advisory group should be -14 - established to review all scripts and interpretive activities for factual correctness and acquaintance with current scholarship. The committee should include an agricultural historian, a Texas historian, and a historian with expertise in late 19°i -century material culture. Members of the advisory committee should be regarded as consultants and should be compensated for their work. 4. Desired Audiences. The following groups have been identified by the Foundation board as audiences that should be targeted by Nash Farm. This means that special efforts should be made to establish ongoing contacts with these groups, literature about Nash Farm and its programs should be placed in their hands and, eventually, special programs should be established for them. The groups are: School groups in grades K-12 Neighborhood children Senior citizens groups Guests at Gaylord Tourists laying over at the airport Tarantula Line passengers Corporate picnic groups Family reunions Weddings Shuttle tours People making Grapevine a weekend destination -15 - This list should be further refined by research into each of these groups and a strategy devised for maintaining contact with each of them as Nash Farm develops. 5. Available Interpretive Spaces The primary spaces available for the interpretation of Grapevine's agricultural history to visitors are the downstairs rooms of the house, the barn, the pole barn, a shed to house the farm equipment collection, the cemetery, and the arable land around the house. Due to the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that all exhibit spaces in museums be accessible to all visitors, the upstairs rooms of the house should not be used for exhibits or interpretive activities but should be reserved for storage space and possibly for a docent lounge. I am going to suggest the addition of a smokehouse and hen house to the farmstead in order to better interpret food preservation techniques. Ideally a historic smokehouse from the 1900 period could be identified in the Grapevine area and moved to the site; otherwise a replica should be constructed. The smokehouse should be located within the fenced yard near the kitchen, and the hen house and chicken yard should be adjacent to the kitchen garden.. The square footages of the roofed interpretive spaces are as follows: Entrance hall 110 East room 235 West room 240 Dining room 168 Kitchen 144 Pole barn 1582 Barn 2508 -16 - Equipment shed 750 All of the interpretive spaces in the house are small and restricted, and great care will have to be taken to ensure that they are not overcrowded and that there is ample room for visitor circulation in them. The barn, the pole barn, and the equipment shed are ample spaces, but their use is restricted by the absence of exterior walls from the pole barn and the equipment shed and the presence of livestock in the barn. The interpretive potential of the cemetery is somewhat limited by its use as a burying ground. The interpretive possibilities of the arable land around the house are somewhat restricted by the soil types and drainage found there, but hopefully it can support demonstration crops of corn, cotton, and wheat and a kitchen garden. 6. Exhibit Area A: Entrance Hall. The Entrance Hall, with 110 square feet of usable space, is the first interpretive space that the visitor will encounter after coming through the front door. This small room will have to serve two functions. It will have to accommodate a table and chair for the docent who will greet visitors and collect admission charges; and it will have to provide space for a small exhibits on the history of the Nash family and their farm. This exhibit should make use of photographs, documents, and short text panels to explain to visitors the changes that have taken place over time in the Nash house and farmstead. The historic photographs of the Nash family and house in the files of the Grapevine Heritage Society, supplemented with enlargements of the family's entry on the 1870 and 1880 censuses of agriculture, can make up the bulk of the exhibit. The exhibit should include a tactile track, one or two items, possibly reproduction artifacts that can be easily replaced, that can be touched. A palm -leaf fan similar to the one held by Elizabeth Nash in the photograph of her and her husband on the front porch would be a good candidate, particularly if -17 - paired with a touchable male artifact. No additional research needs to be done for this exhibit. 7. Exhibit Area B. East Room. The East Room, with 235 sq. ft. and a 8'6" ceiling, should be used for an exhibit on wheat and cotton cultivation in the Grapevine area. In order to accommodate the exhibit functions, a pole -and -panel exhibit system and track lighting should be installed in this room. An X-shaped configuration of panels crossing in the center of the room -would yield 68' of linear space for an exhibit on wheat and cotton. A passage 32" wide should be left in each corner of the room. An additional 10' 8" of space could be gained for this exhibit by using the wall that divides this room from the entrance hall, and even more space could be gained by using the wall space between the windows, doors, and fireplace of the East Room. The wheat and cotton exhibit should make use of photographs, graphics, advertisements, documents, and small objects to tell the story of wheat and cotton fanning in the Grapevine area. Because of the restricted space, the exhibit should focus on the cultivation of crops during the years 1860-1950, and should tell this story from the point of view of the fanner, emphasizing the fanner's daily efforts and worries. Although the exhibit script cannot be written until a further block of research has been done in the Grapevine area and more photographs, graphics, and artifacts have been identified, the main interpretive points of the exhibit should be as follows: A. Wheat farming was the first commercial farming attempted on the Grapevine Prairie and was rooted in the first settlers' experiences in the upper south before coming to Texas. B. Cotton farming on the Grapevine Prairie was part of an international textile industry s and its success or failure depended on many factors beyond the farmer's control, -18 - not the least of which were the weather, infestation by insect pests, and the worldwide cotton market. C. While the development of farm machinery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries made cotton farming less labor-intensive, the rising price of land and the high cost of credit made it increasingly difficult for cotton farmers to survive economically. ____ D. Cotton farming on the Grapevine Prairie declined after 1940 when farmers could no longer compete with large-scale irrigated cotton farming on the Texas High Plains. There are several photographs of cotton farming on the Blackland Prairie of Texas taken in the late 1930s in the Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information Collection at the Library of Congress that would be appropriate for this exhibit. These include a nine -photograph series taken by Arthur Rothstein near Kaufman, Texas, in 1936, especially LC-USF34-005199D, "Plantation Owner's Daughter Checks Weights of Cotton." Dorothea Lange, "Rows of Cotton Near Georgetown, Texas, June, 1938," LC-USF34-018274-C; Dorothea Lange, "Tractor in Cotton Near Corsicana, Texas, 1937," LC-USF34-017146-C; Dorothea Lange, "Day Laborers Hoeing Cotton, Corsicana, Texas, 1937," LC-USF34-017147-C; and Russell Lee, "Bales of — Cotton in Gin Yard, West, Texas," LC-USF34-034837-D. These photographs may be viewed in the FSA/OWI Collection section of the Library of Congress's "American Memory" website (memory. loc. goc), and exhibition -quality prints may be ordered from the Library of Congress Photoduplication Service, Thomas Jefferson Building U -G49, Washington, DC 20540-4610 (202- 707-5510).. There is also a photograph of Claude Green pulling cotton in the Grapevine area (undated) in the Tarrant County College Northeast Campus Special Collections. It is #FRM 28.50 -19 - and can be accessed through Paul Davidson, the archivist there. A special research project, as outlined in Section 2b., would undoubtedly turn up more photographs, now in private hands, that could be used in this section, as well as advertising materials, documents, and artifacts that would be appropriate for it. The exhibit should include a tactile track with artifacts that might include a reproduction cotton -picker's sack and reproduction knee -pads that could be touched. 8. Exhibit Area C. West Room. The West Room, with 240 square feet and an 8' 7" ceiling, is almost the same size as the East Room. With the addition of a pole and panel system and track lighting, it would be an appropriate venue for an exhibit on corn and truck farming and kitchen gardening in the Grapevine area. Panels installed in an "X" configuration, leaving a 32" passage in the corners of the room, would yield 60 running feet of exhibit space, and additional space could be gained by using the wall spaces between the windows, doors, and fireplace. As in the case of the wheat and cotton farming exhibit, the script for this exhibit «-111 have to be written after a block of research on fanning in the Grapevine area is completed. However, the main interpretive points of the exhibit should be as follows: A. Com was the fuel for the power unit of the farm, the mule or horse; it was the finishing feed for hogs and chickens, and it was a staple of the farmer's diet, the principal ingredient of cornbread. B. Truck farming in the Grapevine area was the result of experimental attempts to diversify farming as cotton culture declined; the principal crop was cantaloupes, but tomatoes and other vegetables were also grown. C. The kitchen garden was the farm family's amain source of greens and vegetables and was -20 - the responsibility of the women in the family, who not only tended the garden but canned its produce to assure a winter supply. There are several photographs taken at the 1936 and 1940 Grapevine Cantaloupe Festivals in the Fort Worth Star -Telegram Collection in the Special Collections and Archives of the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries. These include FWST 425-1, Charlie Hall and Ernest Millican with pile of cantaloupes, July 8, 1936; FWST 425-2, Mary Ruth Starr, Queen of the Festival, and E.C. Daniel, president of the Lions Club, eating cantaloupe, July 8, 1936; FWST 1191-1, W.C. Lucas, B.R. Wali, and M.W. Wiley looking worried because cantaloupes are not in, June 27, 1940; FWST 1191-2, Cantaloupes growing in field, June 27, 1940; FWST 1191-3, "Welcome Visitors" sign, June 27, 1940. There are also several photographs in the same collection of a home canning demonstration at the Grapevine Community Center in 1947. These include FWST 2027-1, Mrs. Gene Oxford, Mrs. L.L. Oxford; Mrs. C.W. Goad; Mrs. Jim Seale: Mrs. Jess Willingham; Mrs, W.E. Mayfield; and Miss Mary M. Arnett preparing peaches for canning, July 12, 1947; FWST 2027-2, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Thweatt with baskets of tomatoes and okra to can, July 12, 1947; and Mrs. Mayfield getting ready to can her home-grown tomatoes, July 12, 1947. Prints of these photos can be viewed from Kit Goodwin or Brenda McClurkin at the UT Arlington Libraries Special Collections (817-272-3393). There is also a photograph showing home canning near Grapevine in the FSA/OWI Collection at the Library of Congress; this is LC -USF -342- 000166-D, Arthur Rothstein, "Housewife Canning, Dalworthington Gardens, Texas, 1936." 9. Learning Center. The Nash farmhouse dining room, located between the East Room and the kitchen, has 168 sq ft. and ceilings 8' 11" high. Rather than be restored as a period room, this room should be equipped a -21- as a learning center for K-12 school groups and other groups of visitors and used for programs that will amplify and interpret the c. 1900 kitchen next to it. There is not room for group -oriented programs in the kitchen itself, nor can such programs take place in the kitchen without disturbing the historic setting. On the other hand, the dining room can be equipped as a learning laboratory, and activities that emphasize the science of food preservation and preparation can be carried on there without damaging the historic fabric or furnishings of the house. — A menu of programs should be developed in consultation with the Foundation's education advisors that would combine the popular Kitchen Science programs found in so many museums (see, for instance, Chris Maynard, Kitchen Science; Richard Robinson and Joe Wright, Science Magic in the Kitchen; Rebecca Heddle, Science in the Kitchen; Shar Levine, Kitchen Science; Department of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Kitchen Science for Kids) with sound culinary history. These programs would be based on the food preservation and preparation activities of a 1900 Blackland Prairie farm and would emphasize the relationship between crops, animals, and food and the scientific principles involved in food preservation and preparation in 1900. As with all participatory and demonstration programs at Nash Farm, one of the teaching points underlying these programs should be that there are alternate ways of doing things, and that these ways make use of different combinations of resources than contemporary ways. Thus, cooking on a wood stove consumes less gas or electricity than a modern range but uses more wood and more human labor. These programs should be coordinated with school curricula and could be designed with the Texas family and consumer sciences education standards and the Texas technology education standards as well as the Texas history standards in mind, so that they would be applicable beyond the history curriculum. A consultant who could work with a museum -22 - educator on the family and consumer science standards is Judy Cordell, 11808 Canoe Road, Frisco, Texas 75035 (214-802-7307). Ms. Cordell has recently retired as a family and consumer science teacher in Plano and was recommended by the Texas Education Agency as someone who was interested in innovative approaches to this subject. Dr. David Greer, P.O. Box 700036, Dallas, Texas 75370 (817-395-3210) is a specialist in technology education who has just retired from the Fort Worth Independent School District and was suggested by the National Science Foundation as someone who has been a leader in that field for many years. Both have indicated their willingness to entertain a proposal from the Grapevine Heritage Foundation to serve as consultants on this prod ect. Activities could be designed around wood stove cooking, bread baking, butter making, sausage making, pork preserving, fruit drying, home canning, and other food preparation and preserving activities that can be documented as having been practiced in the Grapevine area in 1900. The activities should be developed by an experienced museum educator in collaboration with a historian and a teachers' advisory group. Testing and refining the activities is an essential part of development. No more than two or three activities should be attempted at first, others can be added as time goes by. Under no circumstances should food prepared in these programs be consumed by the participants. A good model for school programs might be those developed at the Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, Vermont (Billings Farm and Museum, PO Box 489, Woodstock, VT 05091-0489; 802-457-2355). This is a site that interprets a c. 1890 farmhouse and farm that was established in 1871 as a model dairy farm by Frederick Billings and has developed a menu of a dozen or so school programs designed to make children aware of the roles that crops and livestock -23 - played in 19"' -century farm life. There are programs on apples, corn, pumpkins, dairying, draft horses, chickens, and farm children's lives, among other topics. A list of these programs can be viewed at www.billingsfann.org. The Learning Center should be furnished as a contemporary classroom/laboratory in which cooking demonstrations will take place. The room should be lit by adjustable track lighting and the floor treatment should be selected with ease of cleaning in mind - linoleum or cork would be ideal. Roll -down window shades or Venetian blinds should be installed to reduce glare and heat. The room should be equipped with a large, sturdy table for food preparation, an industrial - style sink and running water, an icebox, cabinets for utensils, and a wood -burning cooking range. A wide variety of wood ranges can be purchased from Lelunan's, P.O. Box 41, Kidron, Ohio 44636, a store that specializes in equipment for non -electric households. A top -of -line model sells for between $4,000 and $5,000. Folding camp stools might be used to provide seating for classes during activities; chairs would clutter the room. The development and operation of school programs should be the responsibility of a full- time staff member with experience in museum education. That person should be brought onto the staff as soon as possible, as the school programs will be the -farm's strongest asset in fund-raising and development. They will take at least a year to develop and should be up and running when the farm opens to the public. 10. Kitchen. The Nash Farm kitchen should be furnished as a c. 1900 north Texas farm kitchen. In the absence of any photographic or documentary evidence concerning the Nash's kitchen at this date, certain assumptions will have to be made that will underpin the furnishing plan. Although most of M the literature on the history of American kitchens describes the years 1890-1910 as a turning point in kitchen history, during which the "sanitary kitchen" with white the walls and equipment and cabinets arranged according to the dictates of domestic science schools was introduced into the .American home [see, for instance, Ellen M. Plante, The American Kitchen, 1700 to the Present (New York: Facts on File, 1995), pp. 160-223]. While this was undoubtedly true for.younger families in urban areas, Thomas and Elizabeth Nash were in their early 70s in 1900 and had been living in their house for at least 20 years. Rather than having an up-to-date "sanitary kitchen" it is far more likely that they were using the kitchen that had been installed when the house was built, perhaps updating it occasionally with new utensils or equipment. By the early 1880s, the railroads had made Eastern manufactured goods available to rural people in the Grapevine area, and farmers no longer had to make do with home-made furniture and utensils or pay high freight charges to have heavy items like stoves hauled by wagon from Jefferson or Galveston. It is reasonable to assume that when the Nashes built their house, they furnished the kitchen from the stock of a local hardware merchant, either in Fort Worth, Dallas, or Grapevine. In the absence of any store inventories from such merchants, I have relied heavily on the 1895 Montgomery Ward and Co. catalogue and the 1897 Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogue, both of which carried a representative selection of the equipment and utensils that would have been available to the Nashes in 1900, in preparing a furnishing plan for their kitchen. In 1897 Sears, Roebuck offered a "complete kitchen furniture assortment," a package including all of the kitchen utensils needed by a housewife, and I have used this as a guide for the utensils in the Nash kitchen. Much of what went on in a pre -electric kitchen was determined by a household's wood and water supply. It is clear from the tax and census records that the Nashes had an ample supply of wood -25- a, 01", from the forested wood lots that they owned, and in 1900 someone, whether a household member or a hired hand, must have been cutting wood from those lots for heating and cooking. The evidence concerning the nature of the water supply in the kitchen in 1900 is inconclusive. One of the undated Mitchell photographs, which shows two men on a loaded hay wagon beside the house, shows a wooden pump over the well behind the house. A second undated Mitchell photograph, showing sheep in a pasture, shows what appear to be a wooden cistern and a windmill in the background, but the location of the cistern and the windmill is uncertain, and it is unclear when they were installed. It does not seem reasonable that a relatively prosperous couple in their 70s would have been pumping and hauling water to their kitchen in 1900, and so it seems likely that a windmill and elevated tank were installed over the well before that date and that the kitchen had agravity-fed, running water sink system by 1900. The furnishing plan is based on that assumption, and a windmill and tank of an appropriate pre -1900 date should be acquired and installed over the well. Although water would have originally been piped to the sink from the tank, it is not advisable to keep the tank full due to the weight of the water. Instead, the faucet in the sink should be connected to the city water line and the tank should remain empty. An open -geared Monitor Steel windmill, manufactured by the Baker Manufacturing Co. of Evansvile, Wisconsin between 1898 and the 1930s, was identified on a farmstead near the Nash Farm, and this type would be appropriate for the Nash farmstead. Two sources for restored windmills and tanks are Mark Welch, Second Wind Windmill Service, 4141 Oakcrest Lane, Fort Worth, Texas 76126 (817-249-4881) and Chuck Rickgauer, Windmill Farm, 6625 Colony Road, Tolar, Texas 76476 (254-835-4168). A restored Monitor Steel windmill and ower and an elevated tank would probably cost about $5,000, including ncludmg installation. -26- A final assumption relates to the diet of the Nashes. As upper Southerners from Kentucky, it is reasonable to assume that they adhered to the corn bread and pork diet that was characteristic of that region, as described by Sam Bowers Hilliard in his book, Hog Meat and Hoe Cake (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972) supplemented by vegetables from the kitchen garden and, perhaps, wild game. This assumption is borne out by the large number of hogs listed for their farm on the 1870 and 1880 censuses of agriculture. This means that their food-processing and preservation processes would have included corn shelling and grinding, probably carried out in the barn, and ham and bacon preservation by smoking in a smokehouse. There is no evidence of a smokehouse at the present site, but it may have been one of the four outbuildings recorded in the Tarrant County tax records of the 1930s. In order to properly interpret the Nashes' foodways, an appropriate smokehouse should be acquired and moved to a location near the kitchen within the fenced yard. The 1880 census of agriculture also lists fifty head of poultry on the Nash farm, and there is ample photographic and structural evidence that chickens were kept there until quite recently, as they were on virtually every North Texas farm, where they supplied both eggs and meat to the table. A small hen house and chicken yard should be constricted near the kitchen and a flock of chickens, of a breed appropriate to the c. 1900 period, should be added to the farm's livestock when practicable. While neither the smokehouse nor the hen house bear directly on the furnishing of the kitchen, they do relate to what foods are brought into the kitchen and processed there, and they are crucial to showing the relationship between livestock, food preservation and food preparation. The Nash Fann kitchen should be furnished in accordance with the plan in Appendix 1. 11. Barn. The barn should be the focal point of the Nash Farm's modest livestock program. Initially, -27 - that program should be related to the school program, and should include a Jersey cow to produce milk for butter -making activities and two work horses for crop cultivation. The barn should provide stall and pen space for these animals. Eventually, hogs and sheep can be added to the program and these animals can be housed in the barn. The barn should also provide storage for grain and hay for the livestock and an office space for the staff member who will supervise these activities. 12. Equipment shed A new building needs to be built on the grounds to house selected pieces of farm equipment donated to the Foundation and interpret them to the public. The building needs to provide minimum protection from the weather for the historic equipment, and could be as simple as an open -sided pipe structure with a metal roof and a cement slab floor. Its dimensions should be at least 60'x 14'. This building should house representative pieces of equipment used in the Grapevine area to cultivate and harvest wheat, cotton, and corn. A tentative selection from the equipment that has accumulated would probably include a breaking plow, a stalk cutter, a planter, a cultivator, a Farmall tractor, and a thrasher, but the final selection should await the completion of the research on agriculture in the Grapevine area. Initially, each piece of equipment could be interpreted by a metallic plaque with (if possible) a photo of it in use and a short block of text describing its function. Eventually, the plaques could be accompanied by video stations showing interviews with the donors, with each donor talking about how he used the piece, what its quirks were, and what its advantages and disadvantages were. The basic theme of the equipment exhibit should be the advantages and disadvantages of farm mechanization from the point of view of the farmer himself (or herself). The equipment collection should be limited to a half-dozen or so representative pieces. There is no need to create a type collection of various pieces, or to have multiple examples of any particular piece. -28- 13. Pole Barn. The 1582 sq. ft. open -sided pole barn will be the Nash Farm's only space for groups to gather, receive orientation to the farm and its programs, hear lectures, have meals, and participate in any activities that involve more than fifteen or so people. Its 900 sq. ft. of open space will seat 100 people auditorium style and 75 people at tables. It should be designed in such a way that its space can be adapted to as many uses as possible in all kinds of weather, as it will provide the principal space for the Nash Farm's seasonal public programs as well as for daily group visitor orientation. Consideration should be given to equipping it with overhead heating and cooling devices. 14. Cemetery. The interpretive value of the cemetery could be enhanced by the addition of two metallic plaques, one with a family tree of Thomas and Elizabeth Nash's children and grandchildren that would explain the relationship of Clint and Thomas Paine to the Nashes and another that discussed the prevalence of family graveyards and infant mortality in nineteenth-century Texas. 15. Crops. Plots of one acre each on the grounds should be devoted to demonstration crops of cotton, corn, and wheat. The varieties planted should be varieties that research shows were actually grown in the Grapevine area in 1900. Seeds for some historic varieties may be difficult to obtain. Assistance should be sought from the Seed and Plant Committee of the Association for Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums, c/o Judith Sheridan, 8774 Route 45 NW, North Bloomfield, Ohio 44450. Dr. William Welch, a horticultural historian in the Department of Horticulture at Texas A&M University, might also be able to provide guidance on seed sources. These plots should be cultivated as much as possible with historic, horse-drawn equipment, acquired by the Foundation for this -29 - purpose and kept separately from the historic agricultural equipment collection. A half -acre kitchen garden, protected by a picket fence, should also be planted on the grounds, using heirloom vegetable varieties that could have been found in the Grapevine area. Heirloom vegetable seeds will be easier to obtain than seeds for historic field crops, as there is a large heirloom gardening movement in the United States and a number of companies sell heirloom seeds. Two such companies are Johnny's Selected Seeds, Foss Hill Road, Albion, Maine 04910 (207-437-4357) and Shepherd's Garden Seeds, 30 Irene Street, Torrington, Connecticut 06790 (800-482-3638). Dr. William Welch at A&M could be helpful in this area, too, as he has written a book called The Southern Heirloom Garden. Maintaining the crops and the kitchen garden will require one full-time staff member, preferably some one with experience in curatorial agriculture and historic fanning. 16. Interpretive Tools. The two basic methods of interpretation to the visiting public at the Nash Fane should be tours of the house given by volunteer docents and an interpretive brochure that will guide visitors around the kitchen garden, smokehouse, henhouse, barn, crops, and equipment shed. The house should be staffed by at least two docents at all times; one to monitor the front door and one to give tours. Docents, of course, should receive extensive training in content as well as in docent procedures. The interpretive brochure should include a map of the farmstead and an explanation of the outbuildings and historic crops. The interpretive brochure should not double as a publicity brochure; its limited space should be devoted to an explanation of what the visitor who is already at the site is looking at. A separate publicity brochure should be developed that includes directions to the site, open hours, information on reserving tours and facilities, and a summary of what the visitor -30 - will find. This brochure should be designed for distribution off-site. IT. Public Programming. A regular menu of public programs, built around a historic site's curriculum and designed to appeal to specific audience segments, can be a valuable method of interpreting aspects of a site in more depth than a tour or a self -guiding brochure can achieve. Programs should be of one or two day's duration, and should designed so that participants can register in advance and that -registration fees cover at least a portion of the costs involved (speakers' fees and expenses, equipment rentals, etc.). Suggested programs for Nash Farm include a spring seminar in Texas heirloom gardening, a summer seminar for farm equipment collectors, perhaps accompanied by a two-day historic equipment show; a fall seminar in home canning and preserving; and a winter quilting seminar. These programs should be scheduled so that they do not coincide with regular Grapevine tourist events, which are already periods of heavy visitation for Nash Farm. 18. Staffing Needs. The interpretive plan outlined above can be implemented by three full-time staff members with professional museum experience: a director, a museum educator, and a curatorial farmer. The director would have supervisory responsibility over the entire site, the paid staff, and the volunteers; would be responsible for setting and maintaining interpretive standards and overseeing the daily operation of the site and the docent interpreters; and would report directly to the board. The museum educator would be responsible for developing and implementing the school programs, overseeing their daily operation and supervising the volunteers who were working with them, scheduling school group visits and working with teachers. The curatorial farmer would be responsible for the crops, the kitchen garden, and the livestock. The educator and the curatorial farmer would report to the director. -31 - FURNISHING PLAN FOR NASH FARM KITCHEN c. 1900 A49,(11 Fi9ie/K W17-4gV J* AQ ",V /,2 " -32 - FLOOR AND WALL TREATMENT According to Ellen M. Plante's The American Kitchen: 1700 to the Present (p. 94), wallpaper and floor coverings were not common in American kitchens during most of the 19"' century. Toward the end of the century some fashionable housewives introduced washable wallpapers and linoleum floor coverings into their kitchens, but the scant photographic evidence available shows that rural Texas kitchens in the 1890s had uncovered board floors and simple, whitewashed, board walls [see, for instance,. the 1898 photograph of the LS Ranch kitchen in Cynthia Brandimarte, Inside Texas (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1991), p. 22]. In the absence of compelling contrary evidence, the Nash Farm kitchen floor and walls should be left uncovered, and the walls painted with whitewash or white interior paint. The ceiling should be painted the same color as the walls. If the original baseboards survive in the kitchen, the services of a professional paint analyst should be obtained to determine their original color and they should be repainted that color. If they have not survived, they should be recreated and painted the same color as the original window trim. Professional paint analysis for historic structures can be provided by Susan Buck, Historic Paint and Architectural Services, 23 Sumner Street, Newton Center, Massachusetts 02459 (617-969-2550). I have used Ms. Buck's services in establishing the paint sequences of a historic house at the Smithsonian and she is excellent. An alternate source would be Mary Canales Jary, Restoration Associates Limited, 3619 Broadway, Ste. 7-8, San Antonio, Texas 78209 (210-820-3432). Ms. Jary's firm has done work for the San Antonio Conservation Society, the National Trust, and the Texas Historical Commission. -33 - WINDOW TREATMENT Most rural housewives strove for light and airy kitchens, especially when cooking on wood ranges in the summertime, when any air circulation was welcome. For this reason curtains were seldom found in farm kitchens. Pull-down dark roller shades, mounted above the windows, were used to ensure privacy at night, and indeed one appears in the 1898 photograph of the LS Ranch kitchen cited earlier. Roller shades would be an appropriate treatment for the two windows in the Nash kitchen. Custom- _ made cotton spring roller shades suitable to the period can be ordered from The Handwerk Shop, P.O. Box 22455, Portland, Oregon 97222 (503-236-7870). The services of a professional paint analyst should be obtained to determine the original color of the interior window trim in the kitchen, and the trim should be painted that color. -34- KITCHEN FURNITURE Wood Cooking Range c. 1880-1900 Cost: $3,000 - $4,000 Location: In front of chimney at north end of kitchen Function: Cooking food and heating water Notes: The ornate wrought iron, nickel -trimmed, six -hole cooking range was the most prominent feature of any American kitchen in the latter third of the nineteenth century. Such stoves were sold with adaptors that enabled them to burn hard or soft coal or wood (in Texas they would have burned wood) and with attachments called reservoirs that enabled the cook to heat water while cooking. Some came with wanning ovens and with shelves to keep prepared food warn. They were among the more expensive pieces of furniture in the house. The top -of -the line models sold by Sears and Montgomery Ward cost $40 in the late 1890s, the equivalent of those companies' best upholstered parlor sets and brass bedsteads. There were myriad stove manufacturers in the United States at the end of the- nineteenth century. Some of the more popular brands were the Windsor, distributed by Montgomery Ward; the Sunshine, distributed by Sears; the Home Comfort, made by the Wrought Iron Stove Company in St. Louis; the Household Select; the Glenwood; and the Crawford. All would be appropriate for this kitchen if manufactured before 1900. The stove should sit on an asbestos or metal sheet called a stove board, which protects the floor boards from its heat, and the flue should be inserted into the chimney and run up it. Sources: Antique Stoves 410 Fleming Road Tekonsha, Michigan 47092 517-278-2214 Good Time Stove Co. P.Q. Box 306 Goshen, Massachusetts 01032 413-268-3677 Barnstable Stove Shop Box 472 Barnstable, Massachusetts 508-362-9913 VEN DOOR FRAME (SEE Np. 23 ON CUT) IS CONSIDERED JT" OF SQUARE STEEL RANGE IN ORDERING REPAIRS. ect 'op, Section Top. Section Top, lection Top, 'umber Plate. late Lugs. a Key Plate. Key Plate. Ing Ring Cover. Centre, self. lase Side. nd. tail. rame. Peed Door. Number. Lining. " .Hinge. :. or. r. D -or Frame. )or Panel, )or Handle. )or Latch. ` Latch Frame. Catch. ,en Door Hinge. n D Tinge. Lt D,, and t Door Frame. ite. .roper. roper Frame. roper Handle. neper Knob. Lxtension. us Strip. veu Srace. Sa pport. st. !Bracket NAMES OF REPAIRS. 46 Reservoir Plate (See Page 123). 47 Left End Frame. 48 Pouch Feed Door. 49 Pouch Feed Door Slide. 50 Left End Draft Door. 51 " '• '. Slide. 52 Fire Back ;Right Fire Lining). 53 Left Fire Lining. 54 Front Wood Lining, 55 Front Coal Lining, 56 Back Fire Lining. 57 Fire Llmne Fra ,( 58 Right Duplex Gra 59 Left Duplex Grate 60 Grate Rest. 61 Grate Clamp. 62 Grate Gear. 63 Shaker. 64 Right Grate Rest Port. 65 Left Grate Rest Port .One Piece). 66 Front Section Grate Rest Supl 67 Back Section Grate Rest Supl 68 Front Ash Chute. 69 Back Ash Chute. 70 Left Ash Chute. 92 Right Closet Bracket. 93 Left Closet Bracket, 94 Right Closet Corner, 95 Left Closet Corner, 96 Right Closet Door Hinge, 97 Left Closet Door Hinge. 98 Pipe Register Frame, 99 Pipe Register Slide. 100 CIoset Door Panel - Handle. 101 Closet Tea Shelf, -35- CXITCHEN FURNITURE Baker's Table c. 1880-1900 Cost: $1,000 - $2,000 Location: East side of room between windows Function: Prepare food and store flour Notes: Baker's tables or cabinet tables, as they were sometimes called, were the forerunners of the Hoosier cabinet, which begin to replace them in American kitchens about 1910 [Plante, The American Kitchen, 170]. They combined a flat work surface, usually covered with zinc or marble, with storage drawers for cutlery and zinc -lined bins under the table for flour and corn meal. They were manufactured between about 1880 and 1910, and by providing organized storage space for cutlery and some ingredients they were a step toward the "scientific kitchen" that started to dominate the American home about the time of World War I. They were the kitchen's central work place. Source: Local antique dealers Latest 1897 Style Reception Chair. I Our Special $2.75 Workrk No, 9151 We show in the illustration something en- To those who•wish something tlrely new in the way of Fancy Ornamental Chairs. The large, strong and desirable frame is made of the very finest selected material, fancy ILI i In every respect. We offer turned, baud ornamented. Theback has fancy turnedsoin- the work basket as iilus- dies. The seat is of 'close woven cane, very comfortable trated herewith. The work and durable. The legs are well braced with fancyspindles. r basket has large upper and tow - The mostornamentat part of this chair can not be brought C '' er compartments. The uppner out in illustration, and that is the finish, We furnish thew x basket is 15x15 in. in size. rr chairs in all white enamel or all gold leaf, as may be de- loner one is slightly smaller. sired, and in either finish it Is more elegant than we can ;Both baskets are rery roomy expressln this description or show in an illustration. We and the handle makes it very only ask you to see this chair that you may be satisfied itis f convenient to move around all we claim for It in elegance and durability. rVe guar- . from place to place. This basket antes it 3L is not as represented it may be returned to usi, mane of the very test reed k and we will cheerfully refund your money. ' that can be procured, baud - Our Special Price. each....... eth .................83.60 comely hand woven. The fourIL In ordering be sure d Leaf. wbetheryou wish it finished cgs are cane wound and extra 1n White Enamel or Gold Leaf. leis traced. xe. alai. Reception Chair in White Enamel or 9153 our spetial Cold Leaf. No.9152. Natural Finishl price, No.9152 We show in illustration another Fancy Reception Chair which is all the rage at Lhe ✓_ r i i 9154 Our sppecial price present time, and one of the most fashionable and desirable chairs o¢ the market. The frame is Ot the ' i i f Shellac b'lni;h........... very finest selected, thoroughly seasoned wood and is far more desirable than can be made to appear in i Guild's Cabinet C pearan a without The back, legs and spindles throughout are fancily turned, giving the chair an elegant ap- ! t li.'• ! .1 t 9155 A household n e pearance without detracting 1¢ any way from its strength. Fancy hand carving on back pieces. Hand I } "? , �f woven cane seat. The (aocv arm braces gia a additional strength to the back. This is one of the most I where there are children. ,rustle chairs ever put on the market, and we finish it either In WhitR Enamel or Gold Leaf. adding very I s ��x selected nifront treedtcoveredps ready to its already handsome appearance. In ordering be sure to state whether you want ft in tubi to ! , cabinet chair must not be Enamel or Gold Lea(- Remember or special terms. when cash in full accompanies order, 3.e may be de- i ed with cheap willow gout ducted for cash. Our Special Price. each [}b.50 I prices, . Our special price.. 'yy THREE' HANDY CHAIRS AT CAR -I_ Ai% ICES. art Our 52 Cent Folding Chair. A 50 Cent Camp a•ooi rot 30 Cents, su No. ata$ this is the lightest, Our $1.18 Folding Step Lac Na. 9157 A convenient, strongest and most lasting camp - Ilght and handy folding I -stool on the market at anything chair 1s something very conch ! like our prices. We have very No. 9182 The Illustration to be desired for camping or large quantities of these on hand our stepladder chair opened f. outing parties or for lawn I direct from the manufacturer, and a step ladder. The back and r use. ThechairIsmade with are offering them as one of the have ver strong braces, so t: a hard maple wood seat, is most convenient articles of the step ladder alone it is tboroug constructed of the best seas- + kind that can be produced. This / stantiai and very rigid. When. oned material, tboroughiy i camp stool is made of beet selected Asa chair it makes a ve: well put together by the best trema with duck seat, wedged / abe article and ezcell, workmen. When folded it and nailed. It folds into a small kitchen use. Itis made makes a very compact bun- i compass and Is very light and con- - �best hardwood handson: dle, as can be seen by the 1 venient to handle. Our s a;a peciai price, each fished in antique oak ai illustrations accompany -tug. ;Price ger dozen......... > q , p • � • •......... 3.401 - - .-- nicely carved back. It is Our special price, each.... No. 911 o five have the same camp stool as above -� ladder chrir that will la, . •0.52 described but without the back. In all other re- lifetime and stand rougr ' """"" spects it is the same as No. 9109 above. Price per dozen....... 6.00 I when necessary. Our special rice,each..60.20: per dozen.. 82,2o Our special price. each... Any Table C. O- D-, Subject to Examination, on a Deposit of $5.00. 3 per cent. Disc.. nt ®• when Cash in Full Accompanies Order. /.Awow%AW-0"`i.'s/lAw.ow'•"..•sw ....w./., ...i p Our $1.35 Kitchen Table. Our $2.10 Breakfast Table. .%o.9164 The Hitchen Table which weslrow itit tie ac"companyfng illus- tration is made of bass wood witn hard wood legs and large roomy drawer. No. 9166 Thts is one of It is strongly constructed and the most desirable and uec- has bolt leg fastenings. It essary articles of furniture s can be taken apart for shipp_ and one that is conveufeut pI¢g,thussavin verglarze for breakfast use or for on freight• This table is a general kitchen use. This I1 household necessity and no 1s not an extension table, kitchen is complete without but the leaves ateither side It. It is made in three sizes, may be dropped so tbat the nicely finished. Weighs about table will take up little 401bs. Prices as follows: space when not in use. It is Size of Top. Price. made of selected kiln dried 28x42 inches ............. 81.35 ash with handsome antique 30x54 inches..... :....... 1.:0 finish, and we furnish it in 3OX60 Inches............. 2.00 eitheroval top as illustra- No. 916.11¢ We have the ted or square top as may tie same table as above ilium- desired. The size of top in traced and described, but either case is 42 inches wide without drawer. In ever by 52 inches long. The y table can be taken. apart other respect it fs just the and shipped knocked down. three sizes. well finished. Prices as follows: same as above. :Bade also in tbussaving freight charges. Size Of top, 29x42 inches, price .................... a1.25 Our Special Price Each..8 Size of top, 30x51 inches, price... ............... .. ........ •.. ...... •. Size of top, 30x60 inches, price...... .."•""""."•. 1.45 Our $3.40 Extentzinn Tahica_ ........................... 1.75 Our $5.50 Handy Kitchen Table. No. 9163 Among the in. ventions for assisting the housekeeper we know of noth- Ing that is more convenient or satisfactory for household uses than the kitchen table we illus--•y�yy ` ' trute above. You can Rain but i very little idea from the illus- tration of the genuine value of �. thissppeciai table. Itsavesthe ' tired housewife man a weary ; �. l�.l"• step, and keeps all the articles + _ wbich can he contained there- - In sheet and clean. It con- tains, as shown in :ilustratfon, two !four bins, one with two compartments and the othe: with one, all of them large and. roomy. Besides. it has Cavo drawers with compartments for cutlery, etc. and two convenient slides. This kitchen table is made of the best hard wood with bass wood Top and the size of top is 30 x 46 inches. The table is strongly constructed and will last it lifetime. It 1s we 11 finished and pre- +ents a good appearance, it weighs about Wlbs., and goes as second-class freight. Our special price ......�5.b0 ......... ............. .................. A ' The Old Fash- ioned Round drop Leaf Table which we show in the illustra- tion is an old time favorite and never goes out of date, nor does it lose any of Its desirable features. This table Is e,pecl- ally well constructed by one of the best manufacturers in this line of goods. It In made of "fine oak with an oval top, the size of which is inches. Can be tak'bn apart and shippped knocked down, thus saving very lar.rely in the freight rate. It comes in three lengths a' No. fl161 ti feet.......... No. 9169 s feet_........ No, 9169 I0 feet......... the following prices: i4 5 ...... P \DID ASSORTMENT OF TABLE LIN -EN IN OUR DRY GOODS DEPARTMENT. SHIP 1'nCR TABL1: CL.()T.II AND NAPHINS '�TI THE TABLE AND SAVE EXTRA CHA$GES. REFER TO INDEX. -36 - KITCHEN FURNITURE Ice box c. 1880-1900 Cost: $800 - $1200 Location: Against south wall of room by door Function: Keep food cold' Notes: The icebox was first introduced into American -kitchens in the 1860s and by the 90s it was considered a necessity anywhere that a reliable supply of ice was available. The domestic iceboxes of the 1880s and 90s were wooden cabinets containing several zinc - lined compartments, one large one for a 25- or 50 -pound block of ice and several small ones for meat and dairy products. The cabinets were insulated with layers of felt and charcoal, and a rubber tube or drain connected the bottom of the ice compartment with a drawer at the bottom of the cabinet containing a drip -pan, which could be removed and emptied as the ice melted. Fresh ice was delivered every few days from an ice -house where it was manufactured. Leading brands at the end of the 19"' century were Acme (distributed by Sears), Baldwin, Eureka, Jewett, Monroe, and Northern. Any of these made before 1900 would be appropriate for the Nash Kitchen. Source: Local antique dealers 0 11, COMPANY./ I?,- REFRIGERATORS. Solid Walnut Sideboard Refrigerators and Water -Coolers Combined. Cedar Chests. LENGTH. No. 26. 35 in. I NO. 27. 38 in. DEPTH. HEIGHT, WITH BACK, 201 in. 50 in. 21 j in. 53 in. -A-laska Refrigerators. Size, Inside -Measurement. CHESTS. UsGTH. DEPTH. WIDTH. No. 1, 28 in. 15 ill. 15 in. EACH. No, 2, 34 in. 18 ill. 19 in. $32.00 No.3 38 ill. 11) ill. 20 in. 38.00 1 No. 4: 46 ill. 21 in. 22 in. -A-laska Refrigerators. EACH. $ 8-.50 10.00 11.00 12.50 Ij lql� 7-2/7, 0, UR; i -A MIM w D(��rip Pails. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, -Nos. 0 and 1. Beautifullvained 9r in Oak and Black Walnut, Lined with Zine, «vith Porcelain Castors and Silver EACH. $ 8-.50 10.00 11.00 12.50 Ij lql� 7-2/7, 0, UR; i MIM D(��rip Pails. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, -Nos. 0 and 1. Beautifullvained 9r in Oak and Black Walnut, Lined with Zine, «vith Porcelain Castors and Silver Alounted Trimmings. LENGTH. DEPTH. 11EIGHT. EACH. LENGTH. DEPTH. HEIGHT. EACH. No. 0. 27 in. 19 in. 42 in. $13.00 No. 3. 36 in. 24 in. 48 in. $25.00 Z No. 1. 31 in. 20 in. 44 ill. 17.00 No. 4. 40 in. 24 in. 51 in. 3000 I4 \, a Q I ,11 .11 - I I' ;,, as ()A NT- z if ti? ;­ a1; ; " r.) _ !V; 00 KITCHEN FURNITURE 2 side chairs c. 1880-1900 Cost: $100 each Location: On each side of baker's table Function: Seating furniture Notes: While the Nash family probably took their meals in the dining room, the kitchen was a prime visiting spot, especially in winter, and several utilitarian chairs were usually found in every kitchen, where they provided a resting place for the cook as well as for her visitors. The chairs in the Nash Kitchen could be of the hide -bottom type made by country chair makers all over North Texas and usually described as "common chairs," or they could be of the more elegant, manufactured, pressed -back type sold by Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. Source: Local antique shop KITCHEN FURNITURE Dry sink converted to wet sink, reproduction c. 1880-1900 Cost: $1,000 Location: Against west wall of kitchen Function: Provide water for cooking and washing Notes: Farm kitchens in the late 19"' century were equipped with either wet or dry sinks, depending on the source of water in the room. If the water was pumped from an outside well and carried into the kitchen in buckets, a dry sink without a water faucet was used and the water was simply poured into it from the bucket and then drained out of the bottom of the sink. Dry sinks were often simply metal troughs set into a wooden cabinet, and were built by local carpenters. If the water was fed into the kitchen by gravity from a cistern, then a wet shut with a faucet connected to the cistern was used, and water entered the sink directly from the faucet. Wet sinks were frequently porcelain -coated metal basins on legs, and were available from hardware stores. Often, a dry sink was converted to a wet sink by the addition of faucets. Because kitchens are the most frequently remodeled room in any 110ltse, it is extremely difficult to locate kitchen sinks that are more than fifty years old. _Vly recommendation is that the Nash Kitchen utilize a reproduction dry sink converted to a wet sink, built to order and based on the original sink at the Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vennont. This option has several adN'antages. It will avoid a long and very likely unsuccessful search for a period sink; it will allow interpreters to discuss both types of sinks and water supply systems with visitors, and it will be much less expensive than an original porcelain wet sink. Source: Local cabinetmaker TIFF L\ I L N ICI OR 1a " K1 1 t 7 -39 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Pie safe c. 1880-1900 Cost: $800 - $1,000 Function: Store cooked food Location; Against' west wall of kitchen Notes: The pie safe is a peculiarly southern furniture form which developed in the mid - nineteenth century. It is a ventilated cabinet, usually raised above the floor on legs, equipped with two or three shelves and designed to hold baked goods and other cooked food and to protect it from rodents and insects. The earliest pie safes had panels of punched tin in their doors and sides; by the 1880s most were made with screen wire panels. They were usually made of pine and were frequently painted. Source: Local antique dealer -40 - KITCHEN FURNITURE Open shelving Reproduction Cost: $500 Location: Mounted on west wall of kitchen Function: Storage of kitchen utensils _,_Notes: The built-in kitchen cabinets that adorn today's kitchens have their origins in kitchens of the 1930s and 40s and are themselves descendants of the fi-ce-standing cabinet storage units of the 19 -teens and 20s. Before either of these were developed, cooking utensils were stored on open wall shelves in kitchens_ usually made of boards at least 12" wide. Each shelf was covered with oilcloth to prevent staininy7. In this case four shelves mounted next to the sink should hold all of the utensils needed for the Nash Kitchen; if they prove insufficient a fifth self could be added over 11le sink. The shelves should be covered with oilcloth in small square patterns; if this cannot be found Mexican oilcloth in a fairly small floral pattern would be appropriatc. ounce: Local cabinetmaker -41 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE 2 bracket -mounted kerosene lamps c. 1880-1900 Cost: $60 (reproductions) - $400 (originals) Function: Lighting devices Location: One over baker's table, one over sink Notes: Kerosene lamps mounted on swinging brackets were known as kitchen lamps or hall lamps; frequently the bracket was constructed so that the lamp could be lifted from it and placed wherever light was needed. On faims, the kerosene that fueled the lamps was usually kept in a drum in an outbuilding and pumped from the drum as needed. Source: Nineteenth Century Lighting Company 601 North Broadway Street Union City, Michigan 49094 517-741-7383 (originals) Lehman's P.O. Box 321 Kidron, Ohio 44636 888-438-5346 (reproductions) -42- 1 ?i KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Towel bar Reproduction Cost: $10 Location: Mounted on north wall beside stove Function: Dry dish towels Notes: A towel bar made from a wooden dowel long enough to hold two or three dish— cloths was a ubiquitous feature of farm kitchens. It was usually mounted on a wall in close enough proximity to the stove for the heat from the stove to dry the towels. Source: Local cabinetmaker _43)_ KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Copper -bottom tin wash boiler c. 1880-1900 Cost: $100 (reproduction) Function: Heat water for washing Location: On shelves next to sink Notes: While most Texas farm wives did their heavy washing ace a «eek M cast iron wash pots or syrup kettles in the yard or in an outbuilding called a wadi house, the wash boiler was used in the kitchen for heating hot water on the stove and washing delicate fabrics or small loads of wash. It was a small oval tub usually holdins: 10 or 12 gallons with a lid and a handle on each end, light enough to be lifted to the stovetop when full. They were usually made from copper or from galvanized metal �� itll copper bottoms. They are greatly in demand today as firewood holders and so a number of companies make reproductions of them; unfortunately, the reproductions seldom lhati-e lids. Source: Van Dykes Restorers P.O. Box 278 Woonsocket, South Dakota 605-796-4425 Pyl E :% S UR ES. Plarlished Copper. i Copper, 1'. S' St'ill': Quarts, 4()tear:,.— Inches, Per ) 12 C10 17 t) GALVANIZED, FLAT BOTTOMS. STAMPED TIN COVERS. Nos. Inches on Bottom, Each, COLD ROLLED COPPER. WASH BOILE-c-, PLANISHED COPPE-T- TIN, FLAT COPPER STAMPED CO 12 x-" 2 $1,11) 150 FL."iT COPPER BOTTOMS. Oval, Pit or Flat Bottoms. Klett Copper Bottoms, Cop}' Nos. 7 8 9 Nos. 8 Inches on Bottom, 10xl9j�-11t4x2l 1214'x22L,� Inches on 11wto-Ni. loxjqr/� lll--x21 Each. $6 50 7 00 7 75 Each, 57 35 7 85 348 -44- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Cast iron stove kettle c. 1880-1900 Cost: $300 Function: Cookware Location: On shelves next to sink Notes: At the end of the 19"' century the term "stove kettle" referred to a straight -sided cast iron vessel with three very short legs and a bail handle, somewhat similar in form to today's Dutch oven but without the flanged lid, used for cooking soups and stews and sterilizing preserve jars. One of the largest manufacturers of cast iron stove kettles and other cast iron cookware was the Griswold Manufacturing Company of Erie, Pennsylvania; their products are highly collectible today and there is a Griswold collector's club and several dealers specializing in Griswold products. If an original stove kettle cannot be found, the 9 -quart flat-bottomed Dutch oven made by the Lodge Manufacturing Company, Box 380, South Pittsburg, Tennessee 37380 (423-837-7181) closely approximates its form. Source: The Pan Man P.O. Box 247 Perrysburg, NY 14129 716-532-5154 Bernie Ver Hey 623 Watkins Glen St. Charles, MO 63304 314-441-9936 Darvin King 248 PR 4839 Baird, TX 79504 432-854-1046 TIT I I vy a u k e e, W i,5. c. o n,5. i n CAST STOVE HOLLOW WARE. POT. KETTLE. 7 $0 75 $0 65 $0 30 $1 70 LONG PAN. Lst Iron Lon- Pans, rn each, $0 50 60 75 BAILED GRIDDLE. 4DLED GRIDDLE. -45 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Cast iron tea kettle c. 1880-1900 Cost: S 100 Function: Cookware Location: On stove Notes: Although described as a "tea kettle," this spouted vessel's function was --actually to heat small amounts of water on the stove, and it was found even in housclaolds where tea -drinking was not customary. Along with the kettle and skillets. it was an essential part of the late 19"' -century housewife's cast iron cookware set. Sources: The Pan Man PO Box 247 Perrysburg, NY 14129 716-532-5154 Bernie Ver Hey 623 Watkins Glen St. Charles, MO 63304 314-441-9936 Darvin King 248 PR 4839 Baird, TX 79504 432-854-1046 In CAST IRON HOLLOW WARE. fi YANKEE 2( SCOTCH BOWL. Nos. 3 4 5 Each, $0 45 50 60 —TEA KETTLE. 6 Nos. 3 -1 1 70 Each, $0 55 65 HAM BOILER. Nos. 7 8 9 10 Nos. -7 Each, $0 80 90 1 00 1 25 Each, $1 90 BAKE OVENS. SHALLOW. PATENT SAD IRON H" a Shallow. Nos. 2 3 Inches, 12 11 10 Each, $1 50 1 30 1 20 Deep. Nos. - 0 1 23 No. 7, Patent Sad Heater, Inches, 14 12 11 10 8, Each, - $2 50 1 75 140 1 30 9, a -46- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Cast iron spider c. 1880-1900 Cost: $150 Function: Cookware Location: On shelves next to sink Notes: "Spider" is a terra that originally meant a small skillet with three legs, used for cooking in a fireplace. By the end of the 19"' century it had come to mealy a small. flat- bottomed, short -handled skillet with a pouring lip on each side, usually about 8" in diameter. If an original cannot be located, Lodge Manufacturing Co.'s S" skillet is an acceptable substitute. Source: The Pan Man PO Box 247 Perrysburg, NY 14129 716-532-5154 Bernie Ver Hey 623 Watkins Glen St. Charles, MO 63304 314-441-9936 Darvin King 248 PR 4839 Baird, TX 79504 432-854-1046 'IIt1J�.I�Q, I,5CGr,:Si-;�• CAST STOVE HOLLOW WARE. POT. KETTLE. r ch. - $0-5 each, $0 65 :SC21, $0 ")m La $1 , 0 JDLED GRIDDLE. SPIDER. y- -� 177, ist Iron Long Pans, - - - - - - enci:, ?0 �50 - - - - - 60 75 v4 S 9 U 85 70 J 1 90 , .,- - JDLED GRIDDLE. LONG PAN. y- -� ist Iron Long Pans, - - - - - - enci:, ?0 �50 - - - - - 60 75 BAILED GRIDDLE. JDLED GRIDDLE. -47 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE 10" cast iron fry pan c. 1880-1900 Cost: $150 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Note: Somewhat larger than the spider, the 10" frying pan completed the housewife's basic — set of cast iron cooking ware. Source: The Pan Man PO Box 247 Perrysburg, NY 14129 716-532-5154 Bernie Ver Hey 623 Watkins Glen St. Charles, MO 63304 314-441-9936 Dan in King 248 PR 4839 Baird, TX 79504 432-854-1046 -48 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE 2 graniteware saucepans with lids c. 1880-1900 Cost: $50 each Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: Graniteware was a generic name for cooking vessels made of sheet steel coated with enamel. These vessels were lighter and easier to clean than cast iron and they were considered a scientific and sanitary advance when they were introduced into American kitchens in the 1870s. The earliest graniteware was imported from France and Gennany; by 1874 it was being produced by the Vollrath Compam,, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The enameled coating was a speckled blue, black, brown. or gray, somewhat resembling the mottled appearance of granite. Other early manufacturers of graniteware were Lalance and Grossjean of Brookyn, who called their product "Agate Ware," and the St. Louis Stamping Co. of St. Louis, which in 1899 became the National Enameling and Stamping Co. And produced "Nesco Royal Enameled Granite Ware." Source: Techav's Antiques 705 8" Avenue De Witt, Iowa 52742 319-659-8365 -jF r 7% There j.4 a M11 made hv eilill, 6-, -Ifauv dealers have feared that tj . are made of Glass and rr-uen."'011ld last t')O tak t e tr d butsince the Goods 1" W-11 jin(I ,, of the nature ,f r e h a e, to the trade.), ,,Lr American II-lisekeepers will find a way to ;Dear th"111 Xhlcll would be a calamitr 111ake rooru for more. S T. 4S'r ti S--AMpINC C""'"11" IZ �. VIM",a @ir 7L o uis 123 M ua KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Graniteware double boiler c. 1880-1900 Cost: $100 Function: Cookware Location: On shelves beside sink Notes: Double boilers, consisting of a small lidded saucepan that fits into a larger vessel which can be filled with water, were used for warming milk, making puddings, and cooking rice and oatmeal without scorching it. Source: Techav's Antiques 705 8"' Avenue De Witt, Iowa 52742 319-659-8365 FRY PANS EGG FRY PANS. MOUNTAIN CAKE PANS. DEEP PUDDING PANS, " BELLE" TEA POTS. MILK, R I c BL 7 M ISL K DIS' MIL:{ S. FU: S�x lli tf LIPPED SAUCE WALL SOAF -50- aG' KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Graniteware tea pot, 4 pints c. 1880-1900 Cost: $50 Function: Cookware Location: On shelves next to sink Notes: According to the Iists of essential cookwares in -both the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalogue and the far more elegant White House Cook Book, by Mrs. F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann (1887), the well -organized household kept both a teapot and a coffee pot on hand. Source: Techav's Antiques 705 St" Avenue De Witt, Iowa 52742 319-659-8365 PERFECTION GRANITE IRON W,,-;;-. TEA, N`-) 5500 Series, .-assorted Colors. No. `5oa Series, Assorted Colors. No. 5500, 3 PintsHandsomely Mottled Colors, White Porcelain Inside, Nickel Plated Corers, , per dozen, $1; 00 No. 8500, 1 Pints, >>510, 4 _ I9 00 - per do7en, $17 00 _ 5520. J 8510, -1 _ 19 OO 21 00 8020 5 21 00 23 00 8530, G a, 23 00 TEA, No. 4100 Series. No. 5100 Series. T:tiith 'Xllite Metal _Mountings. IWith White Metal Mountings. nt - per dozen, ,`>21 oo 1 No. 5100, 8 Pints. COFFEE, r ,l -51- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Graniteware coffee pot, 5 pints c. 1880-1900 Cost: $50 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink, Notes Coffee was the universal drink of most Texans at the end of the 19"' century and it is likely that the coffee pot saw far more use in the Nash household than the tea pot. In many farm households a pot of coffee was kept warm on the stove at all times. Source: Techav's Antiques 705 8"' Avenue De Witt, Iowa 52742 319-659-8365 -5?- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Graniteware dish pan, 10 quart c. 1880-1900 Cost: $75 Notes: The 10 -quart dishpan, a fairly shallow basin with gently sloping sides, was placed in the sink, filled with hot water, and used for washing dishes and utensils. Source: Techav's Antiques 705 8"' Avenue De Witt, Iowa 319-659-8365 -53- KITCHEN ARTICLES OF USE 3 tin bread pans Contemporary Cost: $20 each Notes: In an era in which large quantities- of bread were baked at home in the oven of the wood range, multiple bread pans were a necessity. The Sears Roebuck list calls for 3, one 6" x 10" x 3" and two 8" x 12" x 1 !/2"; while the White House Cook Book list calls for 4. Tin bread pans are still manufactured in more or less the same -form that they were in 1900, and I strongly recommend using these rather than searching for antiques from the period. Source: Fante's Kitchen Ware Shop 1006 South 9"' Street Philadelphia, PA 19147-4707 215-922-5557 -54 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE 2 dripping pans Contemporary $20 each Function: Cookware Location: On shelves next to sink Notes: "Dripping pans" were so called becauszAicy were originally placed beneath meat being roasted in order to catch the drippings. By the end of the 19"' century they were used to put meat, fowls, and vegetables in before placing them on the racks in the oven. They were identical in form as well as function to contemporary tin or graniteware roasting pans without lids. The 1897 Sears Roebuck list calls for one that is 10" x 12" and one that is 10" x 14". Source: Local hardware store -55 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Flour sifter c.1880-1900 Cost: $30 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: Flour sifters were pitcher -shaped tin vessels with a mesh screen in place of a solid bottom. When the user turned a crank protruding from the side or handle of the vessel, two circular blades revolved inside the vessel, causing the flour in it to descend through the screen in uniform granules. Their purpose was to break up the lumps that had formed in flour while it was stored in sacks or in a flour bin in the kitchen. Flour sifters generally came in 3, 4, and 5 cup sizes. Source: A Curious Cupboard PO Box 164 Eunice, NC 28623 -56- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Box grater Contemporary Cost: $20 Purpose: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: The box grater was essentially a metal box with open ends, each side of which was perforated to serve as a surface against which to grate some easily abraded substance, such as cheese. A handle across one of the open ends made it possible for the user to hold it while grating. Contemporary graters made from tin have the look and feel of late 19"' century originals and are a perfectly acceptable substitute. Source: Local hardware store. -57 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Biscuit cutter Contemporary Cost: $12 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: Biscuit cutters were simply circular strips of tin or copper with a handle attached; used to cut circular biscuits out of rolled -out dough. They are still made in exactly the same form that they were a century ago and a contemporary example would be appropriate for the Nash kitchen. In many country kitchens, a tin can \vith several holes punched in the bottom to prevent a vacuum served as a biscuit cutter. Source: Kitchen Collectibles 8901 J Street, Suite 2 Omaha, NE 68127 402-597-0980 w -58 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Dover egg beater c. 1880-1900 Cost: $60 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink- Notes: inkNotes: A number of patents were filed in the 1860s for egg beaters which would replace the traditional method of whipping eggs by beating them in a bowl with a fork. The most successful was that filed by Timothy Earle in 1863 for a rotary egg beater with tin- plated blades powered by cast iron cog wheels turned by a crank. These were produced from the 1870s through the early 1900s by the Dover Stamping Company of Boston and were known as Dover egg beaters. They became enormously popular and their praises were sung in virtually every American cookbook published in that period.. An anonymous contributor to The Horne Cookbook, published in Chicago in 1875, wrote, "I would just as soon undertake to mop my floor with a rag tied to a stick as to beat eggs for a cake without a Dover's Egg Beater.... As long as there are ego's to beat, give me Dover or give me death!" [quoted in Meryle Evans, "The Evky�- Beater," Gastronornica 1 (Spring 2001), 16-19.] Source: Rusty Springs 1433 US Hwy 2 Kalispell, MT 59901 SILVER'S EGG BEATER AND MEASURING GLASS. Silver's Patent Egg Beater and Nleasurincr Glass, Timer, Revolving, POT CLEANERS. SKEWERS. ILVE-71"] !-'-1A1-ENT ECUO M, Size. M k$ N 2 U T F JL PATENT FOR. per doz( LIGHTNING. TRIUMPH F- I -I FTE R ffifilftl WHIP ECC HEATER n No. 2, Plain Wire, Large, Two Ring Pot Cleaner, per doze 2, "<< it Three it it - 2, Retinned It Two It 44 1, Polished Steel Wire, Meat Skewers, per set, (12), it Triumph Plate Lifters., it a -59- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE 12 3" patty pans Contemporary Cost $5 each Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: Patty pans were shallow tin baking dishes with designs pressed into them used for baking small individual pies, sweet or savory, called patties or pasties. They are still manufactured, although not in as wide a variety of patterns as they were a century ago. The scalloped -edge pans made by the Chicago Metallic Manufacturin✓z Company's Smaliwares Division would be perfectly appropriate for the Nash kitchen. Source: Kitchen Emporium 32A Friendship Street Westerly, RI 02891 888-858-7920 01) KITCHEN -60- ARTICLE OF USE 6 9" pie plates Contemporary Cost $5 each Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: Farm housewives a century ago spent much more time baking bread and pies than contemporary housewives do. Throughout the nineteenth century pies, made of fresh fruit in the summer and dried fruit in the winter, were a regular accompaniment to both the mid-day and evening meal, and it was not unreasonable for a housewife to have a dozen or more pie plates among her cookware. Tin pie plates are still manufactured today in much the same way that they were in 1900, and contemporary examples would be perfectly appropriate for the Nash kitchen. Source: Fante's Kitchen Ware Shop 1006 S. 911' Street Philadelphia, PA 19147-4707 215-922-5557 -61 - KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE 14" graniteware basting spoon 1880-1900 Cost: $25 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: Spoons, ladles, and funnels as well as vessels were made of graniteware,- and a long - handled spoon were some of the cooks basic tools, used for tasting as well as basting. Source: Techav's Antiques 708 8` Avenue De Witt, Iowa 52742 319-659-8365 -62- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Cake turner c. 1880-1900 Cost: $20 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: A cake turner- was simply a stamped metal, wooden -handled spatula, used for a variety of kitchen tasks in addition to baking. Source: A Curious Cupboard PO Box 164 Eunice, NC 28623 -63- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE 1 -quart tin cup c. 1880-1900 Cost: $20 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: The one -quart tin cup was used for measuring both liquids and solids: it had a wide lip and a pouring spout, and was frequently marked with lines on the exterior in half- pint increments. The nineteenth-century housewife did not cook with the precisely measured ingredients of today's cookbooks but simply estimated the amount of each ingredient and poured it into the cup. Source: A Curious Cupboard PO Box 164 Eunice, NC 28623 M ^t ' KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Vegetable fork c. 1880-1900 Cost: $20 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: The vegetable fork was a long -handled, stamped metal fork used for stirring, testing meat and vegetables for doneness, and lifting food from cooking pots. Source: A Curious Cupboard PO Box 164 Eunice, NC 28623 -65- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Flat skimmer c. 1880-1900 Cost: $20 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: The flat skimmer was a long -handled stamped -metal utensil terminating in a perforated disc which was used to remove residue from the surfaces of liquids. Source: A Curious Cupboard PO Box 164 Eunice, NC 28623 F"'t 'I'LlIC110 C"ILD Tlandle �_oily Flat Handle Ladles. 1-11t . , 'Duel) skillllllwv��. Flat Balletic, Flat \r,., I I Io I I os, Each, w_q Patent "Nfutfill Palls. NOW WI �S, Fl;it �Jcjjjjjj), Flat 11mi(fic, Flat 10 4k 4 $ 10 12 14 q Retimied, -No.5. curd (i Retimie(j, \O.colatent P T -n Cake 116 -66- KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE 10" tube cake pan c. 1880-1900 Cost: $50 Function: Cookware Location: On shelf next to sink Notes: The tube cake pan was the all-purpose cake pan of the late 19" century. If an original of the period cannot be located, a contemporary tin tube cake pan would be an acceptable substitute. Source: A Curious Cupboard PO Box 164 Eunice, NC 28623 Fante's Kitchen Ware Shop 1006 S. 9"' Street Philadelphia, PA 19147-4707 215-922-5557 -67- a" KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Meat grinder c. 1880-1900 Cost: $75 Function: Cookware Location: Fastened to top of baker's table Notes: The hand -cranked meat grinder was another labor-saving device of the late 19°i century, replacing the hand chopper. Most farm kitchens were equipped with one. Source: Rusty Springs 1433 US Hwy 2 West Kalispell, MT 59901 PULVERIZING. GEKI FC11CD CHC -P' -- , 7,-r- - -, - -- -- - - - , TLNINED, SELF C—L-17.1- R p717 —,\T I N G No. 20, small size, 3 inch hopper, with ;.)r cutting coarse, medium, dne and pulverizing, also ore per dozen........ <- No. 22, medium, 3- hopper, four -,utter cutter, per dozen No. 24, large, 45,inch hopper, four cuttars, One ;n FINE. YLEDIUM, NUT B' TEF STUFFER AT FOR GEM FOOD No. 22, attachment for No. 22 chopper, per !o:: -n ..................................... No. 24, attachment for No. 24 chopper. pe-,: .01:1-1: ................................ NO& 5 to 10. Xos. 12 and 32. No. .5, ('Yalvanized, Weit):,ht 41/2 pounds, Chops ',/ pound per minute, enoh ';2 2 KITCHEN -68- ARTICLE OF USE Coffee mill (lap mill) c. 1880-1900 Cost: $100 Function: Cookware Location: On baker's table Notes: The year 1900 marked the introduction of vacuum-packed ground coffee by Hills Brothers, but most Americans still bought their coffee in 50- or 100 -pound sacks of green beans, roasted the beans at home on the stove in a skillet and then ground the roasted beans for daily use. A wide variety of hand -cranked coffee mills were available for domestic use. They fell into two broad categories: those that could be mounted on the wall and ground the coffee into a vessel placed below them, and those that sat on a shelf or table (or were held in one's lap, thus the designation "lap mill") and ground the coffee into a drawer in the box that contained the mill. The latter type was the one most frequently recommended by housekeeping manuals as being the easiest to clean and the least wasteful of coffee. Source: A Curious Cupboard PO Box 164 Eunice, NC 28623 COFFEE MILLS, NO. 075, OT5. Cast Hopper, Dovetailed Light fine Box, - 050, Dark 1, _ - 025. White Walnut Pulished Box, N o. 425. I2,5, Parker's Extra Large Size Adjustable Double Grinders, Closed Top, No \o. b;. 'arisian Pattern, Nvith Patent Imported Steel Grinders and Patent Re_Tulators. Yood ,,— Parker's Iron Hopper. "i'M 10. :til0 00 J 00 12 00 per dozen, .',,x15 00 - 5 10. :til0 00 J 00 12 00 per dozen, .',,x15 00 0 KITCHEN ARTICLE OF USE Tin or graniteware wash basin c. 1880-1900 Cost: $30 Function: Personal sanitation Location: On shelf next to sink •• Notes: A shallow wash basin was usually kept in the kitchen to allow the cook to wash her hands while working. A washbasin, mirror, and towel were usually found on the kitchen porch or back porch of Texas farm homes to allow the family members to clean up before entering the house from the fields. Source: Techev's Antiques 705 8"' Avenue De Witt, Iowa 52742 319-659-8365 DEEP 'S'T-1-AjpE-D W -A -RE. Tea Kettle.-=. SIMMONS r C ego-, ned Flat -Bottom Tva Kettles, Wood Handle. Retinned. 16 I Inches of Bottom 6 m, - -$14 , A-vith Rings Fillis,hed AVater Dippen�. Cooke.v Pnii., ler cm,(L WASH BOWLS ON!, Z1111, $6 00 Per Dozen, Finished Water Dippers. each, $ 1. .09 Cake Pi,iis. Plmiished, 13 X'3} inches, Retinricdf Nos, Quarts, Diam. in Inches off3ottorij, 5 Per Dozen, Q 5 Retinned, Handled, Feer Fast. 2 4 .12 .15 .15 17 Retinae, Drhakin'(7,, Cups, 5 6 17 .25 20 .30 -70- Baker, T. Lindsay. A Field Guide to American Windmills. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985. Barlow, Ronald S. (ed.). Victorian Houseware, Hardware and Kitchenware. Minneola, NY: Dover Publications, 1992. Brandimarte, Cynthia A. Inside Texas: Culture, Identity, and Houses, 1878-1920. Fort Worth, Texas Christian University Press, 1991. Campbell, Randolph. Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State. New York: Oxford Uiversity Press 2003. Evans, Meryle. "The Egg Beater," Gastronomica 1 (Spring 2001), 16-19. Evans, Samuel Lee. "Texas Agriculture, 1880 - 1930." Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1960. oley, Neil. The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997. Hilliard, Sam Bowers. Hog Meat and Hoe Cake: Food Supply in the Old South, 1840-1860. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972. Israel, Fred L. (ed.). 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1968. Jordan, Terry G. "The Imprint of the Upper and Lower South in Mid -Nineteenth Century Texas," Annals of the American Association of Geographers 57 (December 1967), 667-690. Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalogue No. 57, 1895. New York: Dover Publications, 1969. Oliver, Sandra. Interpreting Food History. Technical Leaflet #197. Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1997. Plante, Ellen M. The American Kitchen: 1700 to the Present. New York: Facts on File, 1995. Sanders, Jesse T. Farm Ownership and Tenancy in the Black Prairie of Texas. USDA Bulletin No. 1068. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922. sung, Charles H. (ed.). Grapevine Area History. Grapevine, Texas: Grapevine Historical Society, 1979.