Bill Keating's Mule Driver's Whip
date: label: date made
content: 1910
notes: label: Description
content: This mule driver’s whip belonged to William (Bill) Keating who worked as a miner in Schuykill County, Pennsylvania during the first half of the 20th century. Miner’s would load their coal onto mule-drawn carts and claim their coal with an ID so they could be paid when the coal was weighed at the head of the mine. Miners often felt close to the mules used to haul the coal. While working as a mule driver in a Pennsylvania coal miner Bill Keating composed the ballad “Down, Down, Down” to “break my loneliness and to show my mule I was in a friendly mood.”
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content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
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content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: William E. Keating
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.MHI-MN-8995A
label: accession number
content: 263096
label: catalog number
content: MHI-MN-8995A
objectType: label: Object Name
content: whip, mule driver's
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 66 in x 2 in; 167.64 cm x 5.08 cm