The Ordinaries

An archive of objects from the Smithsonian’s Revolutionary Crossroads collection: traces of use, fragments of life. These are the remnants of the ordinary.

Photo of a chair

How were these objects used?

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Note: The categories ‘Pay & exchange’ (mostly banknotes and coins) and ‘Portray, display & decorate’ (mostly silhouettes and prints) were excluded from this visualization.

Artifacts of the everyday: some made to endure, others lasted by chance

Betsy Bucklin’s 1781 needlework sampler from Providence, with a house, floral borders, and stitched verse.

Betsy Bucklin’s 1781 sampler

A linen sampler stitched in silk by a New England schoolgirl, featuring a verse in praise of George Washington.

Small carved wooden Virgin-and-Child santo from 18th-century Puerto Rico.

18th-century Puerto Rican santo

A small carved Virgin-and-Child figure once kept in Puerto Rican households for daily devotion.

Early-19th-century pressed-felt stovepipe parade hat painted red with a fire-company emblem.

Parade hat of the Allegheny firemen (1807-1850)

A hand-painted hat worn by volunteers of the Allegheny Engine Co., used in service at fires and carried with pride in civic parades.

Early-19th-century courting mirror with painted crest and rectangular glass.

Courting mirror (c. 1800)

A painted wooden mirror, given by a suitor to a prospective partner in New England as a sign of affection and promise.

Carved and painted wooden tavern sign with a fleur-de-lis, framed for hanging.

Tavern Sign (1770)

A carved wooden sign that marked a roadside inn and guided travelers along early American routes.

Printed 1773 postmaster’s bill from the Philadelphia Post Office with columns and ink annotations.

Postmaster’s bill (1773)

A printed sheet tracking three letters leaving Philadelphia for Rhode Island, witness to how news and private words moved through the colonies on the eve of revolution.

Late-18th-century ceramic apothecary jar labeled for quassia bark.

Apothecary jar (c. 1790–1810)

A ceramic apothecary jar that held bitter-wood bark prepared as a household tonic to reduce fevers.

Viola d’amore with dark varnish, carved head, and 19th-century alterations.

Viola d’amore (18th c., altered)

An 18th-century viola d’amore, believed re-assembled in the late 1800s by Leopoldo Franciolini — an Italian dealer infamous for his faked antique instruments.

Oval mourning locket with watercolor miniature of a grieving figure beneath a willow tree beside a funerary urn.

Mourning locket for A.R. (c. 1780)

A small locket marked “A. R.”, carried as an intimate token of grief.