Toy Steam Shovel
date: label: date made
content: ca 1930
name: label: maker
content: Kenton Hardware Company
notes: label: Description
content: Kentontoys, manufactured by the Kenton Hardware Company of Kenton, Ohio, was born out of the Kenton Lock Manufacturing Company in the 1890s, which produced cast iron locks, doorknobs, and hardware for furniture. In 1894, Kenton ventured into the newly expanding market of toy banks and eventually produced many different types of toys well into the 20th century. This toy steam shovel called the “Marion,” from around 1930, represents a power shovel produced by another important Ohio company, the Marion Steam Shovel Company.
label: Description
content: Toys such as this shovel raise questions about the relationship between technological innovation and social impact. The use of steam-powered vehicles to move large amounts of earth and other natural obstacles made it possible to expand into previously remote areas. The Marion Steam Shovel Company provided shovels that helped alter land for the expanding railroads and for the digging of the Panama Canal.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Ohio, Kenton
topic: label: Subject
content: Toys
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Work
label: See more items in
content: Artifact Walls exhibit
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Sears, Roebuck and Co., Collection of American Toys
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.295669.0640
label: catalog number
content: 295669.0640
label: accession number
content: 1971.295669
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Toy, Steam Shovel
label: Object Name
content: toy, steam shovel
label: Other Terms
content: Toy, Steam Shovel; Toys
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron, cast (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)