The word “Hoosier” is one of those words whose origins are lost to time. Even The Oxford English Dictionary offers no real guidance about where the word came from. What we do know is that “Hoosier” was first documented in the mid-1820s, and within a decade, it had entered general usage. John Finley, a Hoosier himself from Richmond, write a poem titled, “The Hoosier’s Nest” that was published in 1833, although his initial version uses “Hoosher.” This usage, along with many others from the period, indicate that Hoosier was most likely in oral usage for quite some time, as there appears to be no need to explain the term once it appears in print usage.

Speculation about the origins of the word began almost immediately, and a number of theories have been offered over the years. Perhaps the most widely accepted of these is from historian Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr. Dunn pins the word’s origins on an old English dialect and the root “hoo,” which means high ground or a hill. Early usage of the word is not so specific to Indiana, but rather seems to refer to a backwoodsman or a mountain man – the kind of rough, hardy people who populated the early Appalachian frontier. For details and other theories, check out the Indiana Historical Bureau’s website and their article, “What is a Hoosier?” at http://www.in.gov/history/2612.htm.

With that out of the way, we can talk about the one of the other widespread Hoosier terms – the Hoosier cupboard. Hoosier cupboards are easily explained. By the end of the 1800s, kitchens were becoming more modern, and furniture was taking on more specific forms, moving from multipurpose forms to forms more specific to areas and purposes in the home (tables vs. dining tables, work tables, breakfast tables, etc.). As kitchens became more modern, they began to demand more specific forms, and one of the most practical examples of this was a flat-wall cupboard with a flour bin for 50 pounds of flour along one side, cupboards across the top for dry goods, a pull-out work surface – often enamel or porcelain – for kneading bread or rolling pastry crusts, all over drawers and cabinets beneath for utensils, mixing bowls and other dishes. The Hoosier Manufacturing Company was founded in 1898 (some sources say 1903), and they went on to produce cupboards or cabinets of such quality in such quantity that the word became a generic trademark – just like Kleenex or Q-Tip today. Hoosier cupboards (and Hoosier-style cupboards), models of efficiency, represent the transition between the antique wooden cupboards and the modern kitchen with its laminated countertops.

A Hoosier-style oak cabinet with flour bin and enameled work surface. (p4A item # D9807041)

-Reference note by Hollie Davis, p4A Senior Editor – June 21, 2009

Further Recommended Reading

The Hoosier Cabinet in Kitchen History by Nancy R. Hiller

Baleen comes from a suborder of whales, Mysticeti, which includes, among others, humpback whales, gray whales, right whales and blue whales. What sets these whales apart is baleen. These whales do not have teeth, but have upper jaws filled with two rows of baleen plates fringed with fine baleen hair. These plates are so closely aligned that they act like a comb or a sieve; whales pull water across them, catching the small plankton they feed on in the baleen ‘hairs’. Baleen varies widely in size, as the sizes of the whales it comes from vary. The individual plates can be as small as 2 feet, but as large as 12 feet long! A single plate can weigh 200 pounds. Baleen is often called whalebone, which is a bit of a misnomer. Baleen is not bone, but rather keratin, the same protein that forms hair and fingernails in humans as well as horns and claws in animals.
Archaeology suggests that hunting whales was crucial to the Inuit way of life as early as 1000 A.D. In a landscape that offers so few materials, every part of a whale was used, including baleen. Because of the lack of wood for fires for boiling water, baleen was softened by soaking it in urine. Baleen had another property that made it valuable in the Arctic environment: it doesn’t not frost. As a result, it was deemed useful for all sorts of utilitarian purposes, such as fishing lines and sled runners.

A baleen sled with hide ties. (p4A item # D9763560)

Baleen’s price was closely linked to the fashion trends of England and Europe, being used for busks, pieces of a rigid material slipped into pockets in the front of a corset to keep it straight and upright. As small decorative objects that could be carved and were placed in a hidden place near the heart, busks were common sweetheart gifts, often beautifully decorated with delicate carvings. Baleen’s flexibility and durability also made it perfect for forming the hoops in hoop skirts. Baleen’s price was roughly at its highest when hoop skirts were at their widest.

Detail of the end of a scrimshaw baleen busk with delicately carved details. (p4A item # D9981258)
D9981258

A baleen basket with ivory finial carved in the shape of a diving whale’s tail. (p4A item # D9777078)

Scandal & the Story of Bakelite

Bakelite hit the market in 1907, heralding the arrival of the modern plastics industry. Bakelite was the first completely man made plastic, as until then, plastics such as celluloid, casein, and Gutta-Percha all had as a base a natural material. It was developed by Belgian-born chemist Dr. Leo Hendrick Baekeland who started his firm General Bakelite Company to produce the phenolic resin type plastic. Bakelite was inexpensive to manufacture and extremely durable, and made its inventor a wealthy man. In subsequent generations, however, the Baekeland’s family story was one of tragedy rather than triumph. In 1972 the schizophrenic great grandson of Dr. Baekeland stabbed his mother to death. Savage Grace, by Natalie Robbins and Steven M.L. Aronson, a book about the family and the murder, was a best seller when it was published in 1985.

Bakelite for Appliances & Jewelry

Early Bakelite was used almost exclusively in the manufacture of radios, appliances and electrical components because it was lightweight, inexpensive, durable, moisture-resistant and non-flammable. The limited color range of black, brown, and the occasional burgundy and dark green was appropriate for use as radio cabinets, vacuum cleaner parts, and electrical elements, but eventually, formulas were developed to produce the plastic in a range of appealing colors. Its ability to be carved and molded made it ideal for inexpensive jewelry. Early jewelry attempts to mimic more expensive materials like ivory amber, onyx, and jade, but by the 1930s, consumers began to appreciate the plastic for own qualities and Bakelite jewelry made its appearance everywhere from Sears Roebuck to Sacks 5th Avenue.

Colorful Art Deco Bakelite Gems

Artists and designers discovered the beauty and workability of Bakelite (and Catalin, a competitor who also produced a phenolic resin plastic). New technology created additional colors, and the plastic became available in scarlet, green, amber, brown burgundy, red-orange, and Kelly green and black and marbled. By 1934, yet another plastics company had produced a formula for Bakelite in pastel colors including willow green, light blue, pink and yellow. Due to the unstable nature of the chemicals used in the pastel colors formula, these pieces are hard to find, and as such, are among the most costly of Bakelite jewelry.

Bakelite Jewelry & Values

Bakelite could be molded, carved, or laminated, and designers and turned to the material for brightly colored, inexpensive flights of fancy to adorn everything from wrists to waists. Necklaces featured beads in a variety of sizes and colors, sometimes terminating in carved or laminated pendants. A popular choker style necklace consisted of pairs of bright red cherries on celluloid stems and leaves dangling from a celluloid chain (today $150-300.)

Bakelite Bracelets

Bracelets were stretchy, cuff, charm, wrap or tank-track styles. Stretchy bracelets consisted of beads or lozenges strung on elastic. Cuff styles could be wide and deeply carved, or narrower bands intended to be stacked together. The band could be smooth, molded (usually in a geometric pattern), carved, or pierced. Wrap bracelets were beads strung on wire, and tank-track bracelets featured overlapping semi-circular links. A quick check on eBay turned up bracelets on offer in prices ranging from $50-300. Deeply carved, wide red cuffs seem to fetch the highest prices, followed by amber, then green.

Bakelite Pins

A variety of pins were produced, either whimsical figurals or geometrics. The Art Deco love affair with the Scottie Dog was evident in the jewelry on offer. Horses also had a strong presence, but pins of elephants, penguins, marlins, and cherries are also available. Pins range in price from $118 for a lovely carved leaf, $130 for a carrot, $102 for a red horse head, and an almost shockingly low $18 for a classic Scottie in red.

Bakelite Jewelry Affordable (Again)!

Prices reached almost ludicrous levels in the early 1990s, and the jewelry became so popular that other Bakelite pieces such as poker chips, Tootsie Toys and Mah Jong tiles were frequently fashioned into jewelry. The market seems to have cooled, meaning that it’s once again possible to buy a fine Bakelite cuff bracelet for less than a gold one.

Reference note by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer, August, 2011

Bakelite

Bakelite is named after its inventor, Belgian-born chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944). After emigrating to the United States in 1889, Baekeland dabbled in photography. In the late nineteenth century, photographic paper was so insensitive to light that prints had to be exposed outdoors in sunlight. Baekeland invented a more sensitive paper that he called Velox. He sold the rights to George Eastman in 1899 for a million dollars.

Now independently wealthy, Baekeland bought a farm near Yonkers, New York and set up a laboratory in the barn. He wanted to develop an insulating coating for copper wire, the kind of wire used to wind solenoids and motors. In those days wire was coated with shellac, which was laboriously made from the shells of the lacca beetle that inhabited southeast Asia. Shellac was expensive and in short supply. Could Baekeland develop a synthetic substitute?

In 1907, he prepared a mixture of phenol, formaldehyde and lye which had the color and the consistency of honey. Unexpectedly, the mixture hardened in its container, producing a solid whose surface faithfully duplicated the shape and the texture of its container.

It occurred to Baekeland that his mixture could be heated in molds to create objects of any desired shape. Thus was born Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic. Baekeland founded The Bakelite Corporation to manufacture his material.

Bakelite is known by several generic names. It is referred to as phenolic because phenol (C6H5OH) is the main ingredient. Phenol is the preservative that is responsible for the “mediciney” smell of preschoolers’ paste and is the “mediciney” ingredient in antiseptic mouthwash.

It is also known as thermosetting because the chemical reaction that creates the solid actually occurs while the molding compound is being heated in the mold. Once the solid object has been formed, it cannot be softened again, unlike thermoplastics such as polystyrene that can be melted and re-used. This property makes thermosets useful for objects that might become warm, such as housings for electrical devices or even handles for kitchen pots and pans.

A Manning-Bowman coffee pot with bakelite handle, base and spigot handle. (p4A item # D9810832)

Baekeland’s competitors also made thermosets, and the word “bakelite” (small b) became a generic term denoting phenolic from any manufacturer. To further complicate things, The Bakelite Corporation later became a distributor of polystyrene, which was sold under the trade name Bakelite.

The original lump of Bakelite was a transparent amber-colored solid whose appearance Baekeland described as “frozen beer”. A few products were actually molded that color, notably ladies’ combs that were meant to simulate hand-carved tortoise shell.

Most Bakelite was made with additives that altered its appearance or mechanical properties.

Flock (short cotton threads) was often mixed with molding compound so that the threads would become embedded in the finished product. The fibers improved Bakelite’s mechanical strength, much as steel reinforcing rods strengthen concrete.

The most common appearance for a Bakelite object was opaque black, which was produced by incorporating carbon black into the molding compound. The ubiquitous black rotary-dial telephone was manufactured of black Bakelite.

A Henry Dreyfuss bakelite telephone. (p4A item # B126428)

A bakelite “bow tie” pattern bangle bracelet. (p4A item # D9769092)

Bakelite’s popularity began to decline in the 1940s as thermoplastics became more readily available. The first major thermoplastic was cellulose acetate, which was made from a byproduct of the cotton gin. Intricately-shaped objects can be fabricated by injection molding. Molten plastic is forced into a mold under high pressure, where it cools and solidifies. Since cellulose acetate was derived from an agricultural product, supply could not keep pace with the growth of demand. After World War II, polystyrene (made from petroleum) quickly became the most popular thermoplastic.

The days of manufacturing collectible jewelry from Bakelite are over, but phenolics continue to be used for applications where heat resistance is required, such as electrical equipment or cookware.

Reference note by p4A Contributing Editor Joseph H. Lechner, Ph.D.

Flax, also known as linseed, (binomial name: Linum usitatissimum, a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae), is an ancient and versatile plant of many uses. Dyed flax fibers have been found dating to 30,000 B.C., suggesting that it may have been the first plant domesticated for human use. In addition to its fibers, flax seeds have nutritional value for both human and animal consumption. From the earliest times these seeds also have been pressed for oil used in dyes and paints.

Today flax is a source for linen thread, cloth and paper, as well as paint, oilcloth, linoleum, ink and even health foods. In the past, it was one of the earliest crops introduced by European colonists to North America, and growing and processing flax was a common part of life in 18th and 19th century America. Flax fiber was used to make sacks and shirts, thread for the cobbler, rope for the farm, and bedding, towels and tablecloths for the home. Flax was such a useful and valuable resource for our forefathers that it was often listed as an agricultural trade good accepted by cabinetmakers, metalworkers and other artisans creating finished work for the farm or household.

Many examples of the basic tools for working with flax have survived and are popular country or primitive accessories for today’s collectors. They include flax breakers (rollers, flails or bench mounted), cutters, tall baskets for holding and moving raw flax, hatchels for separating the inner fibers from the outer husk, and wheels for turning the fibers into thread.

Reference note by p4A editorial staff; August 2012.

John Haley Bellamy, master ship carver of Kittery Point, Maine produced some of the most outstanding decorative carving for ships and buildings during the last half of the 19th century. Bellamy was best known from his carved eagles which were characterized by concave wings, a deep cut eye and accentuated beak. He used a minimum of carving to achieve a masterful effect of clean simplicity. In addition to eagles, Bellamy carved animals, buildings, chairs, clocks, shelves, ship figureheads & sternboards and signs.

Overview
In an age when life itself depended on successful agriculture, sailing ships and horse-back or foot travel a knowledge of the weather was essential. Weather forecasting primarily relied on observation of the skies until circa 1645 when an Italian mathematician, Evangelista Toricelli (1609 to 1647), discovered the scientific principles that led to the mercurial barometer. By using a long, thin glass tube closed at one end, and with the open end placed in a container of liquid, Toricelli determined that the pressure of the air would force the liquid in the container up the tube. Thus, by measuring how far the liquid advanced up the tube, he could estimate the changes in air pressure. The use of mercury, the heaviest of all liquids, allowed a tube of reasonable length to be used in the instrument, and ultimately permitted the barometer to become a common and very useful scientific instrument.

The earliest English barometers date to about 1685. They were mainly of interest to professional and amateur scientists and were constructed by a few instrument makers, clockmakers and cabinetmakers. By 1710, with growing public interest in science, the barometers, then referred to as baroscopes or weather glasses, were becoming common in fashionable English homes. The dials and scales on antique barometers are engraved or printed with the barometric pressure (or the height of the mercury) ranging from about 27 inches to 31 inches accompanied by familiar weather conditions: usually Dry, Fair, Changeable, Rain, and Stormy. These weather indicators are not the most reliable guides to the weather. It’s the movement of the mercury, not its absolute height, which predicts alterations of the weather. There is usually an external pointer fitted on the dial which can be turned to the current reading, making it a simple task to compare it to the next reading-and avoid a possible unexpected drenching.

Types of Barometers

As England prospered in the 18th century, so did the barometer business. The main suppliers and retailers were the scientific instrument makers, clockmakers and opticians. As the craft of barometer making became an industry, most of these shops used subcontractors to provide the parts which they assembled. In concert with modern business practices, some of the barometer production moved to the large industrial centers away from London. The apparatus of the barometer changed very little from the 17th to the 18th century. It was basically a thin blown glass tube with a closed end at the top and an open end standing in a cistern of mercury. The changes came mainly in the presentation of the barometers and their forms. Barometers mounted on handsome carved or inlaid mahogany or other exotic woods and ivory with finely engraved scales were produced for the gentry and wealthy merchant class. The common and less expensive barometer with a exposed straight tube mounted on a scale with a frame of wood or metal, was the standard.

The angle barometer, produced mainly in the 18th century, had a longer glass tube which bent to the right or left. This longer tube allowed for more detailed readings. They can be found set into the frames of mirrors, serving a dual purpose for the owner. They are now rare and command premium prices in the market.

The “stick” or straight tube barometer became popular at the end of the 18th century, and with its variations in style, demand continued until the end of the 19th century. The name “stick” is an apt description. They are narrow and vertical, with an exposed or partly concealed tube and mounted on a finely crafted wood frame. Mounted on a gimbaled bracket, the stick form was useful in cramped quarters aboard ships. The wheel or banjo form barometer, with its round central dial, was first introduced from France in the 1760′s. It was considered inaccurate at first, but by the 1820′s became the choice of English weather enthusiasts. Many English barometer dials are found carrying Italian names. The early 19th century saw a flood of talented Italian artisans entering England. It was natural that these skilled glassblowers, carvers, gilders and mirror makers would gravitate to making and selling barometers. They almost dominated the trade by the 1850′s.

Always seeking to improve the product, manufacturers added hygrometers to their barometers around the 1760′s. Meant to demonstrate the humidity, they depended for measurements on the “beard” of a wild, oat inserted in the mechanism. Naturally these plant parts disintegrated after a few months rendering the hygrometer ineffective. Alcohol thermometers were mounted on the expensive early barometer frames, but became standard equipment by the 1800′s.

Antique English mercurial barometers are delicate instruments. They are often found to have damaged tubes and to have lost their mercury. Even though their decorative and historical qualities are now the prime consideration for most collectors, finely crafted examples with all the apparatus and woodwork intact are the most desirable.

reference note by p4A Contributing Editor Bob Goldberg.