Blog - Shiloh Museum of Ozark History

A blog about the history of the Ozarks and the people who have lived in the region from the earliest recorded history to today.

Halloween Lamp

This circa 1920 ceramic lamp belonged to the Searcy family of Springdale. The only marking is “Germany” on the lamp base.

Before indoor plumbing, this 1880s tin water carrier was an inexpensive alternative to a fancy ceramic basin and pitcher set.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Native American tribes in upstate New York sold handmade beaded crafts like this to tourists.

The pattern of this circa 1915 quilt is called “Barn Raising,” a variation of the traditional Log Cabin pattern.

This flour bin came from the Dave and Nina Cowan homeplace southeast of Greenland (Washington County).

Guy Howard and his friend Ralph Miller made these chess pieces in the mid-1900s in Howard’s home workshop in Springdale.

This needlework was sold as a ready-to-make kit. Sears and Roebuck listed similar items in their 1902 catalog as “sofa cushion covers.”

This hand-cranked machine was used to apply dry pesticide such as Paris Green (an arsenic compound) to garden plants.

A forerunner of today’s virtual reality viewers, this circa 1925 viewer made still images appear in 3-D.

Before store-bought fabric became common, many a pioneer woman had a loom where she made cloth for her family’s needs.