The Delaware County (Ohio) Historical Society is sharing this lesson on artifacts for school and home use during the COVID Stay At Home situation. Feel free to use this with children to look at objects from Ohio's past.
Lesson plans accompany this slide program at the Delaware County Historical Society webpage/Learn At Home.
4. D.A.T.E. Thinking Routine
Making your Thinking Visible
1 Describe Artifact
Do you know what this is?
Do you know what this is called?
2 Analyze Its Purpose
How do you think this was used?
What might I do with this?
Have you ever used anything like this?
3 Tell Its Source
Who do you think this came from?
Do you know where I could find this?
Who do you think would make this?
4 Explain Its Materials & Components
Do you know what this is made of?
What materials were used?
How is this different from what we
may use today?
6. Women would collect hair from
their brushes and place it in
containers called
hair receivers.
When enough hair
had been collected,
it could be made
into a hairpiece to
plump up her current
hairstyle or it could be woven into jewelry.
Long hair in the Victorian age was a sign of
femininity and virtue. A woman could go
her entire life without getting her hair
cut. Jewelry and tokens made from hair,
therefore, had a special significance.
9. Mourning Wreath
made from
women’s hair
The art of fashioning human hair into
jewelry and floral wreaths was widely
practiced in the mid-19th Century in the
United States.
Hair work was an expression of memory
and beauty. Locks of hair and wreaths
memorialized lost loved ones like the one
pictured above while pieces of hair jewelry
were shared as tokens of love and remembrance.
11. Candle
mold
Colonial households typically
didn't use candle molds.
Molds could only make six or
more candles at a time and so it
was impractical to use molds for
the annual candle making.
The vast majority of candles in colonial
times were made from tallow (lard) or
beeswax. They used a method of candle
dipping.
13. Hair curler
Or
Curling tongs
Vintage curling irons were heated on
the fire or the stove for the most part.
They were part wood and part metal.
The metal portion was heated and then
the user held the wooden handles,
which would have remained cooler
than the rest of the tool, and curled
their hair with the hot part.
15. Butter Mold
Or Butter press
Butter presses make butter more
visually appealing for table use.
When people produce butter, they
usually place it in a crock, tub, mold
or box. Old, primitive butter mold
presses were made from wood and
carved with a handle on the top
and a flat bottom with a design
carved on the underside. People
pressed the design onto the top of
the butter.
17. Bull blinder
With a blinder on, the bull can only see
when his head is upright. It was
protection for the farmer. The blinder
was used to control and/or prevent
animals (particularly vicious bulls)
from charging persons or other
animals.
21. Reach/grabber
haberdashery tool
Often used in grocery
stores to reach objects
on very high shelves
when grocery stores
were long and skinny.
Not like today’s
supermarket shelving.
27. 19th century copper
bed warming pan
with pierced and
engraved
decoration. Filled
with hot coals. circa
1860.
Used to warm up
bed sheets before
getting into bed.
Bed warming pan
39. A darning egg is an egg-
shaped tool, made of
stone, porcelain, wood, or
similar hard material,
which is inserted into the
toe or heel of the sock to
hold it in the proper shape
and provide a foundation
for repairs.
Darning Egg
41. Donut mold
The cast iron donut
baking mold will
make three 2 3/4"
diameter cake style
donuts at a time over
an open fire or for use
in an oven.
43. Mouse trap
For those pesky mice,
Antique rustic primitive
Victorian wire basket
LIVE MOUSE TRAP
Country Farm Tool
46. Stereoscope
A stereoscope is a
device for viewing a
stereoscopic pair of
separate images,
depicting left-eye
and right-eye views
of the same scene, as
a single three-
dimensional image.
49. And that’s the way it was.
How are things different today?
What items replaced the ones you just viewed?
