The Kitchen & Pantry

About these Rooms

When the Rossons built their home…

Find out more about some of the artifacts in the kitchen and pantry by clicking the arrows on the top left above each image. Don’t see your favorite artifact here? Let us know you’d like to learn m0re about something by filling out this form. Find out more about some of the artifacts in the kitchen and pantry by clicking the arrows on the top left above each image. Don’t see your favorite artifact here? Let us know you’d like to learn m0re about something by filling out this form.

Find out more about some of the artifacts in the kitchen and pantry by clicking the arrows on the top left above each image. Don’t see your favorite artifact here? Let us know you’d like to learn m0re about something by filling out this form.

Kitchen

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Baking Table

A wood and metal baker’s table, circa 1897, also known as a possum belly table or a Hoosier table. It features a zinc top, a bread board, two small drawers for holding utensils, and two curved, “possum belly” bins, the bottoms of which are zinc. The larger of the two bins was used to hold flour, while the divided bin was for corn meal or sugar. This table was owned by the Goldberg family, and was in use while they lived at Rosson House.

Fire Extinguisher

A Lofstrand Company (Rockville, Maryland) copper fire extinguisher with red rubber hose, a wood and steel carrying handle, and a brass pump with a steel handle that has been painted red. The copper tank would have been filled with water, and the pump operated to direct a stream of water through the rubber hose to the base of the fire.

Highchair

This late 19^th century, Eastlake style wooden highchair is made of walnut with a perforated burl panel on the seat and the back. A small pull knob underneath the seat releases a mechanism allowing chair legs to splay out and down. In this lower position, the curved inner legs convert the chair into a rocker.

Refrigerator

A pine wood ice-box refrigerator made by the Grand Rapids Refrigerator Company, circa 1911. The upper compartment is for a block of ice (approximately 25 pounds) and the lower compartment used for food storage. Both compartments are insulated (usually with sawdust and/or rags) and are lined in metal (likely zinc). The refrigerator has a drain and pipe at the back for water to empty as the ice melted. The water would travel down the pipe and be collected by a drip pan underneath the refrigerator.

Stove

“Monarch Malleable Range Style N” cast Iron, steel and nickel composite cookstove, made in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. The stove converts between coal and wood burning as its fuel source. It has four burners and an oven, and has two foldable trivets to keep pots off direct heat while still keeping them warm, along with two warming areas at the top. This cookstove is originally from a hotel in Tombstone, Arizona. During the restoration of the Rosson House, it was disassembled, cleaned, replated and re-nickeled.

Waffle Iron

A cast iron waffle iron manufactured by the The Griswold Manufacturing Co., Erie, Pennsylvania, circa 1908.

Washing Machine

A Happy Home Steam Washer, made of copper alloy, from the Happy Home Steam Washing Co., Sycamore, Ohio, circa 1915. The label says its capacity is 13-17 sheets, and that it works “on any gas, oil, or cook stove”. Laundry, soap, and water would be placed in the washer drum while it was on the stove, and the laundry would be agitated by turning the handle on the side.

Pantry

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Biscuit Box

A silver plated, reproduction biscuit box made for holding small cookies during afternoon tea.

Canning Sterilizer

A large, copper sterilizer or water bath used for canning. The tank would be placed on a stove and filled with water, covering the tops of jars of food needing to be sterilized, then boiled for a certain amount of time to preserve the safety and quality of the food.

Fluting Iron

A mechanized fluting iron, manufactured by M. Greenwood & Co., circa 1870. This type of iron is made of black painted cast iron and used for fluting or creating ruffles, such as those that appear on collars, cuffs, and hems. These irons are also called pleaters, crimpers or ruffle irons. (See a non-mechanized fluting iron from the National Museum of American History.)

Punch Bowl

A large, ceramic punch bowl with metal lid, made by the Royal Bonn company between 1885 and 1920. This punch bowl belonged to the Gammel family and, according to Georgia (Gammel) Valliere, was used at outdoor parties with the lid to keep insects out of the punch.

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Exhibit Signage

Indigenous Labor in Early Phoenix

A page from the 1910 Census in Phoenix, listing the people who lived at Rosson House – Stephen, Jessie Howe, Jessie Jean, James, and Thomas Higley, along with Mary Johns. The information it shares about Mary Johns: Female, Native American (Indian), 30 years old, single, born in Arizona, parents born in Arizona, speaks English, servant for a private family (the Higleys), can read and write.
Information about the Phoenix Indian School (1891–1990): A boarding school Native American children were obligated to attend after they were forcibly separated from their families and culture as part of a federal assimilation policy. At school, female students like Mary Johns would be trained in vocations like cooking and cleaning, with an emphasis on accepting their “proper” place in society as a marginalized class.
Photograph of students learning to cook at the Phoenix Indian School, circa 1900.
QR Code directing people to the excellent Heard Museum exhibit, Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories (https://boardingschool.heard.org/).

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