What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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Monte Harris Adult Programs Assistant Elizabeth Woods' Coverlet Coverlets, like quilts, are used to cover the bed. Coverlets are meticulously woven, thread by thread, using a loom, while quilts are made by sewing pieces of fabric together. Elizabeth Greaves Dickson Woods was a coverlet weaver during the time when women were not allowed to vote or even discuss politics in public. She and her family moved from Tennessee in 1833 and settled in the area known today as Woods Lane, located between modern-day Bentonville and Rogers. Her husband, Samuel Purviance Woods, served as one of the first grand jurors in Benton County, so it is likely political conversations would have been overheard often by the women in the Woods' household. Just because women could not express their opinions did not mean they did not follow the politics of their day. Elizabeth chose the "Classic Whig Rose" for her coverlet pattern, which leads one to believe she sympathized with the Whig Party — which strongly opposed President Andrew Jackson. 10 WHAT'S UP! MAY 17-23, 2020 FEATURE Glen Christophersen Education Assistant Ice Cream Freezer I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM! Nothing brightens up the day like a bowl of delicious ice cream! People have been enjoying this frozen delight for centuries. The process for making ice cream has not really changed a lot over the years, only becoming easier and quicker with modern technologies. Prior to electric driven mixers, to produce ice cream you needed to earn it by putting in some manual labor. At the turn of the 20th century, if you wanted to eat ice cream at home you had to make it. Home ice cream production required a manual ice cream freezer, such as this one from our collection. This object was donated to the Rogers Historical Museum in 1975 but dates back to around the year 1900. To work the ice cream freezer you would pour the ingredients into the metal cylinder and then place the crank handle attachment on top. Between the metal cylinder and the outer wooden box you would place ice and rock salt. Inside the cylinder, a long paddle would continually stir the contents as the handle was turned. After quite a few cranks, and a little bit of science, your favorite flavor of ice cream would be ready for your enjoyment. You can see this early 20th century ice cream freezer on display at the Rogers Historical Museum (when we reopen) on the covered porch attached to the Hawkins House. Ashley Sayers Education Assistant Victorian Hair Receiver This porcelain hair receiver can be found in the bedroom of the Hawkins House. It was used by Victorian women to collect and store the hair that they removed from their combs and brushes. This wasn't done as a way to help keep a tidy house, but rather as an aide in creating hair and sewing accessories. For Victorian women, hair appearance was important, and ratts were used to help create volume in their hairstyles. Ratts were made by stuffing small balls of the collected hair into a hairnet that would then be sewn shut. The ratt was then used as a hair filler by wrapping the woman's natural hair around the ball and pinning it in place with hair pins. During the Victorian period, hair was not typically washed as frequently as it is today. The natural oils would build up, making the hair collected in the hair receivers valuable as pin cushion stuffing as well. Pin cushions were already a convenient way to store your straight pins so you'd have easy access to them when sewing, but the oils on the hair would help keep the pins lubricated, making them pierce through material better. This is one of my favorite objects from the museum's collection because it is interesting to look back at different time periods and see that the idea of repurposing has been around for a lot longer than we might realize, even though it probably wasn't done for the same reasons we do it for now. Richard Calloway Curator of Exhibits Hawkins House Mirror Just inside the front door of the historic 1895 Hawkins House hangs an original furnishing piece, a handsome Eastlake-style hall mirror. Grandson Harold Hawkins, who moved into the house in 1926, remembers the mirror as always hanging there. I find it fascinating that the mirror has reflected the weddings, parties, holidays and day-to-day life of the house for almost a hundred years. There is a shallow shelf on the bottom side where visitors could leave their calling cards in good Victorian fashion. This would announce that they had come by for a visit and also would allow them to see who else had come by. Also, Harold would leave his good luck buckeye on the shelf whenever he arrived back home and put it back in his pocket when he was leaving. It is as if the mirror was an active participant in the life of the house, not just a passive observer. Pieces Continued From Page 9