Contemporarily Old
Menachem Wecker
The objects that adorn the glass cases of the show "Obsolete, Odd and Absolutely Ooky: Stuff from the DAR Museum Vaults" on view at the Museum of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) until September 2nd are ironically accessible and modern. According to the press release, the 18th and 19th Century objects "were useful, in-fashion and even innovative at the time, but now seem so unusual it is hard to believe the objects were ever real." This holds true for some of the pieces but the most interesting objects are surprisingly familiar.
The Ram’s Head Snuff Mull (mid 19th Century) is literally made of a ram’s head. Most people would find a ram’s head too obscene a centerpiece to garnish their tables. But apparently ram heads were acceptable interior design accessories a couple of hundred years ago. This particular ram, the DAR museum wall text assures, has been mysteriously nicknamed "Frank" by some anonymous party. The actual snuff compartment, embedded within the ram’s forehead, is designed to hold powdered tobacco. Silver plaques on the horns commemorate where and when the ram was shot (Scotland, 1848).
That the ram earns its spot in the show as obsolete, odd and absolutely ooky is undeniable. And it is in good company with a whalebone clothespin, a cow horn gun powder horn, a cow hoof snuff box and jewelry made from hair. More irregular objects include bird roasters, sausage stuffers, nutmeg graters and salamanders (lizard shaped long-handled kitchen tools to keep hands safely away from the fire). Thomas Jefferson’s footwear even makes an appearance. Thomas Jefferson’s Slipper Socks (1700s) are marked "T I," which the wall text assures the viewer is no cause for concern, as I and J were used interchangeably at the time. The socks (one hopes they are clean) are also labeled "6," which even the non-Sherlocks in the crowd can interpret to mean that Jefferson owned at least five other sock pairs.
But not all the objects are quirky souvenirs. Some of the objects are even downright frightening. Medicine of the period explored in "Obsolete, Odd and Absolutely Ooky" was literally a leech and bloodletting affair. Medical practitioners doubled as barber surgeons. Based on the doctrine of the four humors, blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm, medicine tended to invoke big promises of the Hippocratic sort but it first did do harm. Props in the DAR show include a cupping glass, a scarificator, a fleam and a lancet. The process of bloodletting, which claimed the lives of such dignitaries as George Washington, who died in 1799 of a throat infection after his body was drained of 1.7 liters, was practiced from Greek antiquity until the 19th Century. The process used the scarificator, which was a series of 12 (rotary) blades used to make shallow cuts into the patient’s body. A somewhat more painful tool, the lancet was a double edged blade used to make cuts. If the patient’s body resisted, a fleam (a wooden stick) was used to hit the back of the blade to lodge it in the patient’s vein. To top it all off, cupping glasses would be used to collect the blood.
Thankfully, medicine today suffers more from softer problems like insurance nightmares and pharmaceutical conspiracies than from bloodletting. But if the bloodletting tools look like outdated medieval torture tools. Other forms from the show are more familiar to modern viewers.
A portable ladies’ urinal, presumably for when you just have to go while on that long journey, from the 19th Century could be mistaken for a gravy boat. But the modern design, like the "Feminal" ("Freedom for women on the road" according to one website), is precisely the same design as the 19th Century counterpart (though the Feminal is a bold phthalo purple shade).
Others of the odd and obsolete objects, like the spittoons, also resemble their contemporary offspring. But the reason to visit "Obsolete, Odd and Absolutely Ooky" is its combination of the peculiar with the familiar. The ear wax spoon with attached toothpick is quite the crowd-pleaser in its own right.
