Cutlery Box

Cutlery Box
American
Decoration attributed to Donald family, c.1880
Wood, paint
Gift of Delma Donald Woodburn Estate
MHAHS 2002.001.0165

The kitchen, positioned physically and figuratively at the heart of the home, is where family members gathered at the table to share a meal and spend time together. In the late 19th Century, everyday household objects were decorated to enhance the space in which these social encounters occurred. In the early 1880s when John S. Donald brought his city bride, Vona, to his farm in the Town of Springdale, the house was updated and redecorated in the popular late Victorian style of the period. Even this utilitarian cutlery box received a newly decorated surface, ornamented with painted stencil designs to compliment the new décor of the Donald farmhouse.