Cast Iron Shoes
date: label: Date made
content: 18th century
notes: label: Description
content: These cast iron shoes were probably worn by a chemist, and probably date from the 18th century. The donor believed they once belonged to the famous French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier. But, as there is no way to verify this claim, we value these shoes for what they can tell us about early French scientific and cultural history.
label: Description
content: Each shoe weighs over 1-1/2 lbs! There are rivets all around the top of the heels, sides, and insteps. On one shoe, some remnants of leather remain under the rivets. Whether this leather was strictly decorative or served some practical purpose is unknown.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
label: See more items in
content: Clothing & Accessories
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mr. Edward M. Nagel
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.330783
label: catalog number
content: 330783
label: accession number
content: 299585
objectType: label: Object Name
content: shoes
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: shoe 2: 7.7 cm x 28.6 cm x 10.8 cm; 3 1/16 in x 11 1/4 in x 4 1/4 in
label: Measurements
content: shoe 1: 7.7 cm x 28.6 cm x 10.8 cm; 3 1/16 in x 11 1/4 in x 4 1/4 in
label: Measurements
content: overall; left: 3 in x 4 1/2 in x 11 7/16 in; 7.62 cm x 11.43 cm x 29.05125 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall; right: 3 in x 4 1/4 in x 11 3/8 in; 7.62 cm x 10.795 cm x 28.8925 cm