Collections Blog

I-0060yy Yoke Norway Materials: Wood Man carrying water using a yoke. Image by Paul Hamilton, via Wikimedia Commons. This object is an ox yoke made out of wood. A yoke is a wooden beam used to help carry or pull [...]

I-0376a Scythe 19th – 20th century Materials: Iron and wood Man harvesting grain with scythe. Image by Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-40790-0001 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The scythe has been around for centuries. Scythes are used as a tool for [...]

2016.4.21 Thatching Needle Kickapoo United States 1800-1967 Materials: Metal Needles like this one are  used by women of the Kickapoo tribe to make woven mats using cattails and other plants. These mats are used to make Kickapoo wickiups, the traditional [...]

I-0231a Sharecropper’s Cabin African American United States of America Early 20th Century (1900) Materials: Wood, Newspaper, Tin This artifact at the Institute of Texan Cultures is a sharecropper’s cabin. Constructed out of simple materials around 1900, the cabin most likely [...]

I-0393y Tobacco Cutter American Dates: Unknown Materials: Wood and metal Picture of tobacco plants. Image via Wikimedia Commons. This item is a tobacco cutter used to cut the leaves of tobacco plants while processing the plant for use. In the [...]

2013.15.1 Teapot Southern China Date: 19th Century Materials: Ceramic, plant materials, cloth, metal This is a Chinese teapot which was brought over from Southern China by the donor’s father’s family in 1926. The teapot is porcelain with a blue and [...]

I-0035a Palm Raincoat Japanese Date: Early 20th century Materials: Palm Straw Photo Via: Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 14, Dec. 17, 1942. LoneSentry.com This object is a Japanese raincoat outfit that was typically used by Japanese farmers and fisherman to [...]

I-0048a Prayer Book Czech ca. 1892 Materials: paper, leather This Catholic prayer book was donated by the granddaughter of Joseph Schwartz, a Czech immigrant who came to Texas from Austria in 1892. Mr. Schwartz and his family came to Texas [...]

2011.2.1 Field sack American Eckert, Texas Date: ca. 1928-1929 Materials: Textile   Mina Mae Duderstadt (1914-2008) used this field sack for picking cotton while she was a young woman living and working on a farm with her family in Eckert, [...]

I-0047a Norwegian American United States Date: 20th century Materials: Wood, cloth, paint Photo via: ESONET/EMSO   This model is a representation of the Norwegian immigrant boat ‘Restauration,’ other names for the boat include ‘Restoration’, ‘Restaurasjonen’ and ‘Restorasjon.’ This model was [...]