Uncle Tom’s Cabin show wagon panel
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890 - 1900
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Painted wood panel from a wagon used in a traveling production of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The long sawn wooden panels are braced with struts and held with nails, reinforced with thin strips of metal. The panel is coated in layers of paint including a badly faded illustration of Eliza fleeing across an icy river pursued by dogs. A strip of open weaved fabric is attached to the verso of the panel.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The donor, Frank Bushey, discovered the wagon in Windsor, Vermont, where its owner, Mr. Ellis, told him how he had come to acquire it: decades ago, an itinerant “road show” company had come into town (Bellows Falls, Vermont) to stage a production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but had run up debts while unable to perform during a days-long rainstorm, and had to surrender this wagon to the local sheriff, who then auctioned it. Mr. Ellis was the winning bidder and for forty years he used this former ticket wagon as a chicken coop on his farm. Ellis gave the Wagon to Bushey, who hoped to restore the wagon and exhibit it at his Gremlin Camp for Young Boys in West Topsham, Vermont.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The wagon appeared to have been used as living quarters for the proprietor of the company as well as a ticket wagon, with a window in the rear door that opened to allow for sales. Little is known about the troupe, but the wagon was used in the Vermont area around 1900, and the layers of paint reveal that the wagon advertised “Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Managerie.” The traveling show probably performed scenes from the popular play and exhibited exotic animals; correspondence from the donor indicates that this wagon traveled alongside a “monkey wagon” that has not survived.
place: label: Associated Place
content: United States: Vermont
topic: label: Subject
content: Theater
label: Subject
content: Show, Traveling
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
label: Exhibition
content: Entertainment Nation
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Frank B. Bushey
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0180.06
label: accession number
content: 1986.0180
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0180.06
objectType: label: Object Name
content: panel
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 60 1/2 in x 54 in x 5 in; 153.67 cm x 137.16 cm x 12.7 cm