Bare Bones and Unknowns

 

            Given the extreme lack of support provided to the volunteers working to preserve and maintain the property and all the artifacts contained within, the work I was conducting proved to be quite challenging. The state government provides little financial support or vocational training in historic preservation, so they rely heavily on community volunteer work and visitor donations. Due to these restrictions, there has been virtually no organized collection or catalog to itemize and record all the artifacts that they are in possession of. This was the primary challenge in my work as they could only provide limited records or understanding of the objects I was cataloging, which is no fault of their own since they are all undertaking this herculean effort purely out of their generosity and their passion for cultural heritage. Many objects either had production line stamps detailing the maker and year of creation or that information was already known by the volunteers through the aid of the surviving Todd family members. However, some items required background research to ascertain the approximate era/year of origin and who the maker was. This involved examining every possible surface, texture, or material of an object for tiny details, and some of these objects were very large and heavy pieces of furniture. For example, one item that required this approach was a Sentinel Analog Wall Clock with no observable significant details and relatively little knowledge provided by the volunteers; I was able to identify it as a Sentinel series produced by Sessions Clock Co. in 1911 through following the details I was able to observe. Additionally, some of these objects were in very poor condition, due to wear over years of use or mishandling, which hampered efforts in identifying them from deterioration of details and weakened their structural integrity.