Section of Wooden Water Pipe, c. 1820.
Maker unknown; wood and metal.
Donated by the Philadelphia Water Department, 1984.

This hollowed section of tree trunk with a rusted metal ring was used as a water pipe in some parts of Philadelphia until 1930. Workers excavating the Philadelphia Commuter Tunnel in the early 1980s unearthed this early water pipe. The Water Department gave it to the museum to preserve the history of this critical city service. - James Kenney, Councilman, City of Philadelphia and Dick Roy, 36 years with the Philadelphia Water Department

Catto Lodge Banner, c. 1890.         
Maker unknown; velvet, gold embroidery, fringe, and wood.
Purchase, 2004

The Catto Lodge for African American Elks carried the name of Octavius V. Catto, a dynamic  leader and brilliant educator. Rioters trying to keep blacks from the polls murdered Catto on Election Day 1871. Catto had been a leader in the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League and in its fight to desegregate the streetcars. Racial and ethnic segregation led minority groups to form their own fraternal and benevolent groups to provide opportunities for socializing and organizing as well as mutual support.  Many of these organizations continue today and continue to serve primarily those of their own group. - V. Chapman-Smith, Regional Administrator, National Archives, Mid-Atlantic Branch

Gowen Ceremonial Bowl, 1882.
Whiting Manufacturing Company for Bailey, Banks & Biddle; silver and gold.
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.
Donated by James E. Gowen, 1963.

This opulent ceremonial bowl reflects the skilled craftsmanship of the silver and goldsmiths who made it, and it commemorates mine owner Franklin Gowen’s suppression of labor strife in the Pennsylvania coal fields. Eighteen coal barons surprised Gowen in his Philadelphia office with this gift as a “Token of our Grateful Remembrance of his Services in Suppressing Lawless Violence and Re-Establishing Security for Life and Property in the Anthracite Coal Regions of Pennsylvania.”

The reality behind the inscription tells a dark story of sabotage, intrigue, murder, and manipulation of the press that led by the end of 1877 to the death of 10 miners by the hangman’s noose, 41 people convicted of felonies, and the deaths of 20 more miners. This episode slowed but did not stop labor organizing. - Phillip Scranton, Professor of History, Historian of US Industry and Technology, and Walter Licht, Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

Male and Female Black Quaker Dolls, c. 1840s.
Maker unknown; fabric, paste, and composite materials.
Friends Historical Association Collection, Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.
Donated by Miss Anna Walton, 1913.
 
The purpose and use of these dolls is uncertain. Senior AKMP curator Jeffrey Roberts said that the oral tradition long has been that white Quakers took the dolls to England to show English Quakers what Black Quakers looked like. Observant Quakers of the period would not have sat for portraits or sketches and photography had yet to be invented. The dolls would have been one way to communicate appearance. The condition of these dolls and the formality of their dress indicate it was not likely the dolls were meant for children’s play. The Friends Historical Association Collection has been at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia since the early 1940s. The dolls came into the Friends Collection in 1913, a time of high interest in preserving the artifacts and documents of early American history. - Kimberly Camp, President and CEO
The Barnes Foundation

Philadelphia Gibbet, c. 1780.
Maker unknown; iron.
Donated by the Board of Inspectors of the Philadelphia County Prison (Moyamensing), 1963.
 
Gibbets were widely used in Europe from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries to publicly display the bodies of executed prisoners, a chilling warning about the consequences of disobeying the law. They were less widely used in colonial America, but the practice was not unknown. The United States Court of Admiralty of the Continental Congress based in Philadelphia ordered this gibbet iron for Thomas Wilkinson who the Court had sentenced to be hung for piracy and aiding the British in 1781 during the Revolutionary War.

Wilkinson had influential friends who prevented the sentence from being carried out, meaning the gibbet was not used for its intended purpose. Instead, when Moyamensing Prison opened in 1835, it hung over the entrance to the convict corridor, a chilling sight for prisoners. The gibbet is part of a larger collection of items at AKMP from the Moyamensing Prison that closed in 1963 when the Detention Center on State Road in Holmesburg opened. - Leon A. King II, Esquire, Commissioner, Philadelphia Prison System, and Sean Kelley, Program Director Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site

“ABC” Electric Washing Machine, No. 231W, c. 1911.
ABC (Altofer Brothers Company);  wood, copper, sheet metal, and cast-iron, 1915.
Donated by James and Lorraine Rensman, 1985.
 
This electric washing machine or the home, first of its kind, revolutionized washing clothes.  The machine’s ability to do a wash cycle in 15-20 minutes along with the electric powered ringer made it so popular that  it was sold all over the country. Prior to the advent of electrified, mechanized washing machines in the early twentieth century doing laundry required hours of hard physical labor. One wash load, including one boiling and one rinsing took fifty gallons of water. Washing typically took one day and ironing it consumed another day. Laundry work, for the most part, was women’s work. Women who could hired others to perform this arduous task. Those who became laundresses often did so because they had few other options to earn a living. - Stephanie Grauman Wolf, Senior Fellow, McNeil Center for Early American Culture, University of Pennsylvania