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Transferware Plate

by | Artifact of the Month, Household Goods

Donated by Melvin and Lucille Ferguson

This transferware plate belonged to Hiram Hamilton and Ida May Lierly Tresner, who lived in the Round Mountain community east of Fayetteville. Their daughter, Laura Pearl Tresner Ferguson, recalled that the plate sat on the family dining table and was always used for serving crackers.

According to the Transferware Collectors Club website, “Transferware is the term givento pottery that has had a pattern applied by transferring the print from a copper plate to a specially sized paper and finally to the pottery body. While produced primarily on earthenware, transfer prints are also found on ironstone, porcelain and bone china.”

The plate was manufactured by Dunn Bennett & Company of England, a producer of stoneware items for the American market in the late 1880s and early 1900s. Shaftesbury is the pattern name.

Dun Bennett & Co. mark 

Tresner family, circa 1904. Back row, from left: Myrtle, Harvey, Orlando. Front row, from left: Ida May holding Tot, Laura Pearl, Hiram holding Jim. W. H. Albertson, photographer. Courtesy Melvin and Lucille Ferguson

Artifact of the Month Archive

Vegetable Dish

by | Artifact of the Month, Household Goods

Donated by Willa Jean Tresner Crump

When Orlando Hudson “Orley” Tresner (1892-1980) and Virginia Ruth Chesser (abt. 1916-2000) married on November 29, 1934, they received this covered vegetable dish as a wedding present. The dish was made for export to the American market by J & G Meakin, Hanley, England.

Orley Tresner was from the Round Mountain community near Elkins in Washington County; Virginia Chesser was from the neighboring community of Baldwin.

Artifact of the Month Archive

Cottage Cheese Jar

by | Artifact of the Month, Business and Occupations

Donated by Deanna Stevens

Located on the corner of West and Watson streets, Fayetteville Milk Company opened about 1930 and closed in 1974. Owners and operators through the years were Albert Ucker, Hoy and Toy Riggins, and Jack Daugherty. William and Deanna Stevens bought the building about 1975. Inside, they found old dairy and processing equipment, and cases of glass cottage cheese jars with the cardboard seals.

Fayetteville Dairy ad, 1955

Fayetteville telephone directory ad, 1955

Artifact of the Month Archive

Campaign Clicker

by | Artifact of the Month, Politics and Government

Donated by Martha Lankford

John Paul Hammerschmidt (1922-2015) served Arkansas’s Third District in the U. S. House of Representatives for twenty-six years. A native of Harrison (Boone County), he attended the Citadel in South Carolina before receiving an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He was later granted a request to change that appointment to West Point. Before making the transfer, he attended the University of Arkansas for the 1940-41 school year. Upon the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hammerschmidt decided to go to work for a naval yard in California to aid in the war effort. Foregoing his appointment to West Point, he joined the Army Air Corps and served as a combat pilot in the China-Burma-India Theater, where he flew 217 combat missions.

Hammerschmidt’s political career started in Harrison and eventually led to challenging and defeating Democrat Jim Trimble for the Third District seat. He retired from Congress in 1993 but continued to be actively involved in public life as he served on several state and national committees.

Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt (third from left) at a National Chamber of Commerce convention in Washington, D. C., April 1973. Also pictured, from left: Springdale businessman Sandy Boone, Virginia Hammerschmidt, and Springdale Chamber of Commerce president Lee Zachary. Springdale Chamber of Commerce Collection (S-77-9-283)

Artifact of the Month Archive

Christmas Tree Music Box

by | Artifact of the Month, Holidays

Donated by Mary Vaughan

Springdale resident Mary Vaughan bought this music box the 1960s. The Christmas tree (which is made of hemp) is rotated to wind up a music box that plays “Jingle Bells.” The box is original and is stamped “Made in Japan, 1962.”

Artifact of the Month Archive

Donated by Mary Vaughan

Springdale resident Mary Vaughan bought this music box the 1960s. The Christmas tree (which is made of hemp) is rotated to wind up a music box that plays “Jingle Bells.” The box is original and is stamped “Made in Japan, 1962.”

Artifact of the Month Archive