Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object |
Bag, Toiletry |
Date |
1835 |
Description |
Canvas bag with pockets for a comb and brush. String is on each side. Made by Margaret Proudfit Whiteside in 1835 and given to Anna Mary Robertson (later Grandma Moses) when she worked for the Whitesides as a young woman. |
Width (inches) |
9.250 |
Length (inches) |
15.000 |
Information |
Anna Mary Robertson went to work as a hired girl at the age of twelve in 1872. At the time arrangements like this were a common way for a girl to gain education and experience in household management while making money for her future life and meeting new people. She found a position in the household of Thomas and Margaret Whiteside, who were distant relations. She later remembered her years with the Whitesides fondly. The Whitesides were an older couple with no surviving children of their own. Margaret was in poor health, and became very attached to young Anna Mary. When she died in 1876 Anna Mary continued to work for her husband until a family member took over management of the Whiteside farm. Before her death, Margaret gave Anna Mary gifts with sentimental and practical value including a sewing box she had been given as a girl, a needlebook and toiletry bag she had made herself, and her cookbook full of handwritten recipes. |
Related People |
Moses, Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) Whiteside, Margaret E. Proudfit |
Credit line |
Museum Purchase |
Catalog Number |
2005.238 |