Kenneth Cohen
Cradling the Past: Labor and Memory in Furniture History

American Furniture 2022

Full Article
Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

     Abner Woodward, drawing for U.S. Patent 183,357, October 17, 1876. (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.) 

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    Woodward patent cradle. (Courtesy, Leland Little Auctions.) 

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    Woodward patent cradle. (Courtesy, Jeffrey S. Evans and Associates Auctions; photo, William McGuffin.) 

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Woodward patent cradle. (Courtesy, Nebraska History.) 

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Woodward patent cradle. (Courtesy, Canadian Museum of History.) 

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    Woodward patent cradle. (Courtesy, Heinz History Center.) 

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Woodward patent cradle. H. 30", W. 50", D. 24". (Courtesy, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.) 

  • Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Detail of the stenciling on the cradle illustrated in fig. 6. 

  • Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Detail of the stenciling on the cradle illustrated in fig. 7. 

  • Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Detail of the wheel end on the cradle illustrated in fig. 7. 

  • Figure 11
    Figure 11

    Cradle, southeastern Massachusetts, 1660–1700. Red oak, white pine, maple. H. 32", W. 33 3/4", D. 24 1/4". (Courtesy, Wadsworth Atheneum.) 

  • Figure 12
    Figure 12

    Advertisement for Sinclair and Co. Grain Cradles, American Farmer (June 1858): 415. 

  • Figure 13
    Figure 13

     “New England Kitchen,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exposition (1876). Wood engraving. (Courtesy, Library of Congress.) 

  • Figure 14
    Figure 14

    Woodward cradle model, “Old and New England, an Exhibition,” Rhode Island School of Design, January–February 1945. (Courtesy, Getty Life Magazine Archive; photo, Fritz Goro.) 

  • Figure 15
    Figure 15

     Cradle, South Carolina, 1830–1860. Yellow pine. H. 15 1/2", W. 40", D. 23". (Courtesy, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.) 

  • Figure 16
    Figure 16

    Upholstered baby carriage, 1890–1899. Wicker, beech, iron, fabric. H. 39", W. 48 1/2", D. 20". (Courtesy, Minnesota Historical Society.) 

  • Figure 17
    Figure 17

    Bassinet with stand, Harper’s Bazaar (June 7, 1890): 23. 

  • Figure 18
    Figure 18

    Cradle or bassinet, J. and J. Kohn, Austria, ca. 1895. Ebonized laminate. H. 80 1/4", W. 56 1/4", D. 25 7/16". (Courtesy, Museum of Modern Art.) 

  • Figure 19
    Figure 19

    Berthe Morisot, Le Berceau, 1872. Oil on canvas. H. 22" x W. 18". (Courtesy, Musée d’Orsay.) 

  • Figure 20
    Figure 20

    Detail of the Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Michigan City, Indiana, 1884, p. 7, showing “Ford, Johnson, & Co.” factory buildings inside “Northern Indiana State Prison,” with engine room stocked with “bending fuel” circled. (Courtesy, Library of Congress.) 

  • Figure 21
    Figure 21

     Detail of the Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Michigan City, Indiana, 1889, p. 16, showing the “Ford & Johnson Co.” factory buildings, with “bending rooms” circled. (Courtesy, Library of Congress.) 

  • Figure 22
    Figure 22

     Photograph showing workers in the bending room at the Thonet Brothers factory in Boppard-am-Rhein, Germany, ca. 1900. (Courtesy, Museum Boppard.) Thonet pioneered the industrial production of bentwood furniture. 

  • Figure 23
    Figure 23

    Lithograph showing the Ford, Johnson and Co. Chicago showroom and warehouse, and the new Michigan City factory complex, with the Indiana State Prison North circled in the background. In: American Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer (September 1890): 13. 

  • Figure 24
    Figure 24

    Chair, Ford-Johnson Co., Michigan City, Indiana, 1904–1905. Oak. H. 31 7/8", W. 20 1/2", D. 9 5/8". (Courtesy, Art Institute of Chicago.) 

  • Figure 25
    Figure 25

    Chair, Ford-Johnson Co., Michigan City, Indiana, ca. 1904. Oak, poplar. H. 31 1/2", W. 20 3/8", D. 25 1/2". (Courtesy, Metropolitan Museum of Art.)