History Division
Museum of Texas Tech University

1. Silver Tea Set	2. Silver Tea Pot      This teapot has wood inserts in the handle that served as insulation, keeping the handle from being too hot.	3. Silver Slop Bowl   Drinkers poured undrunk, cold tea into the slop bowl, then refilled their cups with fresh, hot tea.
4. Sugar Bowl	5. Creamer	6. Rockwell Stamp
7. Robert Finn Signature		8. Monogram

This tea set was owned by William Marcy "Boss" Tweed (1823-1878), from the 1850s until his death in 1878.  Tweed was the central figure in the 1860s New York City Tammany Hall corruption scandals.  He and his minions stole millions from city coffers through crooked business deals and contractor kickbacks.  Tweed was arrested and convicted of lesser charges in 1871 and served one year in jail.  Meanwhile, the State of New York brought suit against him and he left the country.  He was apprehended in Europe and brought back to jail in 1878, but he died before the civil case could go to trial.    The tea set includes four pieces: a teapot, slop bowl, creamer, and sugar bowl ­all made by New York silversmith Edward Rockwell around 1825.  Rockwell was active in the New York silver trade from 1803 through 1847, and worked out of his shop at 4 Park Place.  From 1815 onwards, a Samuel Rockwell is listed on records with Edward and is presumed to be his brother.    The set is engraved with the name "Robert Finn, New York," on the underside of each piece, and all are monogrammed with what is believed to be the letters "RJF."  Finn may have been an early owner of the set.  There are no visible markings indicating Tweed's ownership.  Edward Rockwell silver is prominent in several major collections of American silver, most notably the Winterthur Collection in Delaware, and the Yale University Art Gallery.

Maytag gasoline-powered washing machine 1. Maytag logo 2. Maytag gasoline powered wringer washer 3. Washer (top view) 4. Close-up of Maytag washer spark plug   5.  Washing machine warning label 6.  Washing machine wringer grease

This Maytag washer, ca. 1940, was owned by Fred Jobe, who operated Lubbock's first self-service laundry establishments in the 1940s.  After working for the Maytag Company, he opened Jobe's Appliance Store in the 1930s and rented nearly 900 washers for $6.50 per month in the 1950s.  His first laundromat was named Rip's Laundry.  Jobe's wife Sylvia remembered that women made their way to the "washotorias," as they were called, with their laundry in little red wagons. She wrote that "business was so good that police had to direct and control traffic" as wash customers crossed the street en route to the establishment.  Jobe's laundromats also existed in Slide and Idalou, Texas.  The washer features a gasoline-powered motor with an exhaust hose, muffler, and a swinging arm wringer.  To use the washer, one poured heated water into the tub, and then started the motor.  All parts in the washer are original except for a few bolts and a new Maytag spark plug.  Some of these washers were later converted to electrical operation.  This one remained gasoline powered and has been fully restored to operating condition by Clifford Hamilton of Shallowater, Texas.

1. Overall, right side	2. Overall, left side	3. Right side detail of action and receiver
4. Left side detail	5. Corkscrew	6. Knife and Sharpening Steel
	7. Knife	8. Sharpening Steel

This Sharps sporting rifle, caliber .40-90 (serial number 159765), belonged to John Wesley Mooar (1846-1918), hunter, freighter, and hide merchant. The rifle is a model 1874 "Old Reliable" sporting rifle with an octagonal barrel and double-set triggers. The rifle was made in 1876 at the Sharps factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Indians of the plains admired the long-range capabilities of the Sharps rifle, and called it "the shoot today, kill tomorrow gun." The Sharps sporting rifle was developed specifically for the West, where long distance accuracy and knock-down power was essential for the large game animals found there. John Wesley Mooar was a businessman who had earned a master's degree in accounting in 1863. In 1870, while Wesley (as he was known), was living in New York, his brother Josiah Wright Mooar shipped him a load of buffalo hides from Kansas and asked him to find a buyer. Wesley sold the hides to a tannery, which then placed an order for 2,000 more. By 1872, John Wesley Mooar had moved to and, in partnership with his brother, established a base from which to operate a buffalo hide marketing business.  Their work included hunting the buffalo, as well as freighting the hides and other supplies. The Mooar brothers are credited with initiating the great commercial buffalo hide harvest on the plains, first in Kansas, then in Texas. The last great hunts occurred in the early 1880s. By 1884, commercial hide hunting had depleted the herds, effectively ending large-scale buffalo hunting forever. Mooar used this rifle during his buffalo hunts on the plains of West Texas in the last half of the 1870s. The rifle appears to have been restocked, but the walnut forestock is original. All parts are in good working order and the firearm is fully operational. John Wesley Mooar's butcher's steel for knife sharpening was among the Mooar family items that accompanied the donation of the rifle.  Butcher's steels were commonplace on the buffalo range where skinning an animal cleanly was all-important to both the quality of the hide and the efficiency of the skinning process.  The skinning knife was a common tool on the Texas buffalo range.  The curved blade as designed for ease of cutting the skin away from the flesh without causing damage to the skin itself.   The blades typically became narrower over time from repeated sharpenings on grindstones and butcher's steels.  Buffalo hunters kept many skinning knives on hand.  The knife shown is not from the Mooar collection, but typifies the style and shape of the classic skinning knife The combination corkscrew and bottle opener was used by the Mooar brothers while in camp on the Texas buffalo range.  In the bottling process, beverage bottles were usually capped or corked, then sealed with lead foil.  The foil had to be cut off before the bottle could be opened.  The lead was sometimes saved and melted with bulk lead, used for making bullets.

Harry Lemaire's Piano 1. Manufacturer's and dealer's plate 2. Piano (front view) 3. Piano (front oblique view) 4. Piano certification label 5. Lemaire marked the keys with their corresponding notes when he taught his children to play. 6. Harry Lemaire in his Tech Band Director's uniform, 1931.  Yes, he was left-handed.  Photo Courtesy of Texas Tech University School of Music