Tobacco stick
notes: label: Description
content: This stick was used in the cultivation of tobacco in Maryland. It was made from a slightly curved tree branch with the bark stripped off and some portions of underbark remaining. One end is flat with two chips at the edge, and the other has four quick chips roughly carved to form a pointed tip. Tobacco sticks were made from saplings or fallen trees that were split and hewn into such sticks that were used to hang and try tobacco during the harvest each season. Although a simple tool, for their utility and necessity, tobacco sticks were highly valued by their owners, and were even listed in farmers’ last will and testament.
label: Description
content: This tobacco stick was donated by Frank Robinson, whose family owned and operated tobacco farms in Maryland. According to him, this stick was used on his family’s farm, Serenity Farm, in Charles County, Maryland. It was also possibly used earlier on the previous family farm, Ferndale Farm, in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Robinson’s family few 40-70 acres of Type 32 tobacco at the Serenity Farm each season, making sticks like this one instrumental to such an effort.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Location of Serenity Farm, where this tool was likely used
content: United States: Maryland, Charles
label: Location of Ferndale Farm, where this tool may have been used
content: United States: Maryland, Prince Georges
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Franklin A. Robinson, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2000.0009.05
label: accession number
content: 2000.0009
label: catalog number
content: 2000.0009.05
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Tobacco Stick
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 128.5 cm x 3 cm; 50 9/16 in x 1 3/16 in