This object was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937.

This object was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937.

The main purpose of smelling bottles, or pungents, was to mask unpleasant odors, and thus they usually held smelling salts. They were first stoppered by corks and eventually by screw caps. The capacity of these bottles ranges from fractions of a dram to a little over an ounce. Decorative details include quilling (as side trim), embedded spirals, and occasionally engraving. This bottle, and others like it, are known to have been made as early as 1763 in Great Britain, where they were advertised as "seahorses," referring to their curved shape. Between 1769 and 1774, Stiegel's American Flint Glass Company in Manheim, Pennsylvania, sold smelling bottles as simply "twisted smelling bottles." Then, beginning in 1826, the New England Glass Works began making this type of object, calling them "dolphins," while the Boston and Sandwich Glass Works advertised their "dolphin tail pungents." Other American glassworks were making similar forms of these popular bottles during the nineteenth century. This object was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937.

This object was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937.

These lamps are known as hand lamps or night lights. According to the accession records, this is a camphene lamp that burned a fluid made from a distillate of camphor.

A number of nineteenth-century physicians in the U.S. dispensed "Indian" medicines. Whether or not such cures were actually based on Indian remedies, the name carried that implication and inspired public confidence. (See McKearin and Wilson, "American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry," p. 297.)

In 1846 Dr. David Jayne and his sons, David W. and Eben C., formed "David Jayne & Sons, Proprietors of Jaynes Family medicine." Philadelphia city directories list "David Jayne & Sons, druggists" at 84 Chestnut Street from 1851 until 1858. Jayne's Alterative was a treatment for scrofula, goiter, cancer, and diseases of the skin and bones. (See McKearin and Wilson, "American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry," pp. 296-297.)

This object was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937.

This flask was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937. This flask depicts the famous race horse Flora Temple. Bred and foaled in 1845 by a man named Samuel Welch of Oneida, New York, Flora Temple achieved a world record on October 15, 1859 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she trotted a mile in a time of 2:19 3/4, becoming the first horse to break the 2:20 record. She was described as "a true stepper with a clean, even, long, low, locomotive stroke", to quote the Spirit of the Times. In an era before television and the Internet, Flora Temple became a national celebrity. Currier & Ives created dozens of lithographs depicting Flora Temple, and wherever she raced, she attracted large crowds of spectators, anxious to get a glimpse of the "Queen of the Turf," as the New York Times dubbed her.

This object was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937.