Artifact Guessing Game

Let’s play a game! Do you know what kind of artifact our Curator Cat, Frankie, has found?

If you said “rug beater,” you’re right!

Consider this post a “part two” to last week’s post about braided rugs. Rugs were common in the 1800s, but vacuum cleaners had not yet hit the market. So, to clean dirt and dust (and possibly cat hair!) out of rugs, people would hang the rug outside and beat it with a paddle on a long handle, much like the one above. Rug beaters were made to be tough and resilient. Most were made of cane, like ours, or heavy duty wire.

You can dive further into the history by checking out this page at the Benten County Historical Society. Their rug beater looks quite a bit like ours!