Agricultural implement models
Date: Between 1939 and 1940
A photograph showing miniature models of agricultural implements made as part of the Work Progress Administration's Museum projects.

Angell Plow
Creator: Angell, Charlie J.
Date: 1926
One-way disk plow manufactured by Charles Angell of Plains, Kansas. Angell, a wheat farmer, developed a plow that set all disks at the same angle, or "one-way," to increase tilling efficiency. Farmers liked that it plowed faster and easily broke up hard soil, but its overuse created a fine, dusty layer that quickly blew away in heavy winds. This is a smaller version of the actual plow, which was ten feet wide. Angell made this four-foot model for use in his family's vegetable garden.

Apple peeler
Creator: Sinclair Scott Company
Date: between 1900 and 1940
Cast iron apple peeler by the Sinclair Scott Company of Baltimore. Hand crank. Clamp for mounting to countertop.

Army mess kit
Date: 1944
United States Army mess kit. Used by Private First Class John Lee Meyer, Jr. Meyer, a native of Phillipsburg, Kansas, was drafted into the Army in 1943. He saw heavy combant in Germany as part of the 1st Infantry Division, 18th Regiment, Company F, eventually receiving both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. After the war, Meyer was reassigned to the 1st Division, Chief of Council, Presentation Department in Nuremberg. His new duties included building the architectural model for the redesigned courtroom at the Palace of Justice in preparation for the Nuremberg Trials.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company military train
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: between 1939 and 1945
This black and white photograph shows troops being served food on a Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company military train.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company's military train
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: between 1939 and 1945
This black and white photograph shows soldiers cleaning their weapons while traveling on an Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company's military train.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company's military train
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: between 1939 and 1945
This black and white photograph shows cooks preparing meals for soldiers on an Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company's military train.

AT & SF alligator wrench
Date: between 1935 and 1987
This is a steel Alligator Wrench so named for the serrations on one side of jaw resembling the open jaws of an alligator. It is used to turn cylindrical or irregularly shaped parts.

AT & SF Railway demmitasse cup
Creator: C.E. Wheelock & Company
Date: between 1894 and 1925
This porcelain cup has an image of The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad's head offices in Topeka, Kansas. They were headquartered in the building as depicted on this cup from 1884 to 1925. The cup was produced by C.E. Wheelock & Company based in Peoria, Illinois but produced in Berlin, Germany. The donor, Charles Goebel, was a Santa Fe employee for 46 years.

AT & SF Railway pitcher
Creator: International Silver Company
Date: between 1890 and 1920
Silver-plated pitcher made by the International Silver Company for the Dining Car Service of the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway Company.

AT & SF Railway sledge
Creator: Warren Tool Corporation
Date: between 1890 and 1952
Double-faced sledge hammer with cast steel head and oak handle. Hammer was used in the repair of steam locomotives in the Santa Fe Shops at Topeka, Kansas. It also was used to deliver light blows in the dressing of hand tools.

AT&SF rivet bumper
Date: between 1859 and 1987
This rivet bumper is associated with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company.

Ax
Date: between 1900 and 1904
Iron and oak felling ax marked along one side: "This axe used by Blanche Boise in smashing the glass cover to picture of Custer's Last Fight." Topeka resident Blanch Boise was a follower of the nationally recognized temperance advocate Carry Nation. Boise was known for violent acts directed at entities associated with the illegal consumption of alcohol. On January 9, 1904, Boise entered the Kansas State Historical Society rooms in the Kansas Statehouse and attacked a framed Anheuser-Busch advertisement depicting a print of Cassilly Adam's famous painting, "Custer's Last Fight," found on Kansas Memory with the Item Number of 305138. Boise was arrested and incarcerated that night. Working in conjunction with Carry Nation, Boise later continued her temperance work by smashing the glass fronts of four Topeka saloons and two drugstores.

Axe Head from the Adair Cabin, 14MM327
Date: 1855-1912
This axe head was recovered during excavations in 2014 of the Adair cabin site, home of Reverend Samuel and Florella Brown Adair and their family, in Osawatomie, Kansas. Osawatomie and the Adairs were much involved with the abolitionist movement during the "Bleeding Kansas" years. The Western or Wisconsin style axe head has a faint manufacturer's mark. It is 22.5 cm long with one bit end measuring 11.9 cm and the other 11.1 cm.

Axe Head from the Mine Creek Civil War Battlefield, 14LN337
Date: 1864
This axe head was recovered during the 1990 survey and excavation at the Mine Creek Battlefield by Kansas Historical Society Archeologists and crew. There are many variations on axe heads styles, this one is similar to a cabin or New England axe. The butt end has been used as a hammer or an anvil. This axe was cleaned by electrolysis which passes an electrical current through a liquid solution to separate the rust from the artifact. The site was the location where on October 25, 1864 Union and Confederate forces fought one of the largest cavalry battles in the Civil War.

Band, Kansas City, Kansas
Date: Between 1939 and 1940
A view of a band performing in Kansas City as part of the Work Progress Administration's Federal Music Project. Also visible is a large stone building immediately behind the band.

Bean pot
Date: between 1950 and 1990
Rafael and Concepcion (Connie) Rocha Lopez owned this large, glazed terra cotta pot. Both Rafael and Connie were born in Mexico. They frequently returned there and brought things back with them, including this crock pot. Reportedly, Connie used the pot in her home to cook beans. In 1963, the Lopez's opened Connie's, the first family-owned Mexican restaurant in Wichita, Kansas.

Bender knife
Creator: Marsh Brothers & Company
Date: between 1870 and 1879
Bone handled steel table knife made by Marsh Brothers & Company between 1870 and 1879. It was owned by the Bender family who were known for killing travelers at their home near Cherryvale, Kansas in the 1870's. This knife was found in a clock at the home.

Blower
Date: between 1955 and 2000
Burner for bending glass tubes in the production of neon signs. Two crossfiring cannon burners attached to a small square base. Belonged to Emil Kutka of Topeka, former owner of the Neon Advertising Company. City directories indicate that Kutka first came to Topeka in 1954 or 1955, when he began work as a glassblower at Neon Advertising. At that time, the company was affiliated with the Landeene Adverstising Company. By 1970 Kutka was listed as the company's Vice President.

Blower
Date: between 1955 and 2000
Hand torch for bending glass tubes in the production of neon signs. Belonged to Emil Kutka of Topeka, former owner of the Neon Advertising Company. City directories indicate that Kutka first came to Topeka in 1954 or 1955, when he began work as a glassblower at Neon Advertising. At that time, the company was affiliated with the Landeene Adverstising Company. By 1970 Kutka was listed as the company's Vice President.

B-M lawn mower
Creator: B-M Mower Company
Date: between 1940 and 1957
Model VD 17 B-M Power Mower. The B-M Mower Company of Blue Mound, Kansas (Linn County), produced power mowers from the mid-1940s until 1957. The company promised customers that its aluminum-body mowers would save time, work, and money "and make mowing your lawn seem like child's play instead of hard labor."

Bobbin lace making set
Creator: Beck, Anna
Date: between 1890 and 1920
Bobbin lace pillow, bobbins, and pattern. Bolster style pillow is tubular and stuffed with sawdust. A modern cloth cover has been added over the original ticking. A cardboard lace pattern, pricked with pinholes, is wrapped around the pillow's midsection and pinned in place. Steel straight pins protrude from the pillow's top through the cardboard pattern, holding in place a short piece of handmade linen lace (issuing from the back) and threads tied to 28 wooden bobbins (on the front). This set was passed down in the Beck family, who emigrated from Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) to the United States in 1894 and settled in Atwood, Kansas. The wooden bobbins belonged to Mary Dostal Beck. Her daughter, Anna Beck, made the pillow and taught her grandniece, Sonia Cloe Domsch, to make lace using this pattern. Sonia Domsch is a respected lace maker and the first Kansan to receive the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship honoring outstanding traditional artists.

Bone Tatting Shuttle from Cottonwood Ranch, 14SD327
Date: 1888-1978
This bone tatting shuttle was recovered during the 2002 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school at the Cottonwood Ranch in Sheridan County. Tatting is a technique for making lace and tatting shuttles come in a variety of shapes. The sheep ranch was established by Abraham Pratt, from Yorkshire, England, in 1878. Pratt's son, John Fenton Pratt and his family continued to raise sheep at the ranch until 1904. Cottonwood Ranch is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Bottles from the Union Pacific Railroad Depot14DO324
Date: 1869-1950
These two clear glass bottles were recovered during excavations at the Union Pacific Railroad Depot in Lawrence, Kansas. The smaller bottle may have held medicine or pharmaceuticals, while the larger may have once held shoe polish. This site served not only as a depot, but also had dwellings, a meat market, a saloon, a possible boarding house or hotel, a grain elevator and other commercial buildings located within the project area excavated in 1995 by Kansas Historical Society archeologists.

Bowl
Creator: Henriot Quimper
Date: between 1917 and 1942
"Mistral Blue" pattern Henriot Quimper ceramic bowl. This bowl is part of set made in France and owned by Virginia Bostick McArthur (1888-1977). As a child, she lived near Salt Creek in Reno County. She later married Vernon McArthur and moved to Hutchinson, Kansas.