Who would you go to for wooden tub repairs? A cooper, of course!
A few months ago this wooden tub was in pieces. Time and weather conditions had caused the metal hoops to fall off and the pieces of wood had come apart. Why would we want to keep a broken tub you ask? Because it was made by Framingham resident Warren Nixon (1793 – 1872) between the 1830s-70s.
The provenance of an object (the object’s origin) is the most important reason why museums keep artifacts. In this case, Warren Nixon was a shoe cobbler and land surveyor who created the Framingham Map of 1832 along with Colonel Jonas Clayes. He was also the great-grandson of military hero General John Nixon, grandson of skilled carpenter Colonel Thomas Nixon Sr., and son of Revolutionary War fifer Captain Thomas Nixon Jr. All of these men were prominent Framingham residents and the family’s long history makes this tub a valuable object of Framingham’s history.
The cooper that kindly reassembled this tub was Strawbery Banke Museum‘s resident cooper Ron Raiselis. Mr. Raiselis was delighted to learn of the age and history of this tub and he wrote “my estimation is that this beautifully made tub was built between 1830 and 1870s. Excellent work that survived.” He goes on to say that the tub appears to have been white-washed or painted inside, often an indication of dairy use, but it could easily have been a laundry tub as well. What do you think was the original use of the tub?
