Receipt for Grover & Baker Portable Sewing Machine and Needles Purchased by Rufus Reed, June 12, 1857
THF706693 / Receipt for Grover & Baker Portable Sewing Machine and Needles Purchased by Rufus Reed, June 12, 1857
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Artifact Overview
Artifact Details
Artifact
Receipt (Financial record)
Date Made
12 June 1857
Subject Date
12 June 1857
Place of Creation
Location
Not on exhibit to the public.
Object ID
29.2385.1.2
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Material
Paper (Fiber product)
Technique
Printing (Process)
Handwriting
Color
Cream (Color)
Black (Color)
Dimensions
Height: 8.5 in
Width: 10.875 in
Keywords |
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Related Artifacts
ArtifactGrover & Baker Portable Sewing Machine, Purchased by Rufus Reed of Newark, New York, 1857
Seamstresses used this sewing machine to sew cotton cloth (a Southern agricultural commodity woven in Northern factories). The cast-iron mechanism in a rosewood case confirms connections between Amazonian forests and New England factories. Patented in 1856, this portable machine hit the American market while the fate of slavery divided the nation. Advertising in the American Farmer (1860) described it “for farm and plantation use,” implying that enslaved and free seamstresses may have used it.