When I was on vacation last week, I paid a very short visit to the Emlen Physick Estate in Cape May, New Jersey. Billed as “Cape May’s only Victorian House Museum,” I was lured there by the rumor of a penny press machine. I was collecting souvenir pennies from machines around town and heard there was one in this 1879 Victorian home. (A home with 18 rooms!) The receptionist told us the penny machine had broken, so we looked around the lobby to scope the place out.
Lo and behold, we found a small display case dedicated to Victorian handicrafts, so I was stuck there for a while. This particular collection was on loan from someone named Mary Stewart. (Thank you, Ms. Stewart!) One side of the case held utensils like a pickle fork, a sugar strewer, and a bleu cheese scoop, but I wasn’t so interested in all that. (You can see the sardine serving fork to the left of the sewing basket’s lid.)
The sewing basket was my favorite thing to look at. The “Carved Bone Crochet Hooks” card says:
“Victorian women were never lazy and often busied idle hands with sewing or needlework.”
That’s a bold statement! I cackled because I seriously doubt that no Victorian women were ever lazy. But that’s neither here nor there. I wanted to pull everything out of the box to get a better look at it, but, museums. Always putting things out of reach. It would be cool to take a closer look at the stitching of the sample pieces, to see which ones are crocheted. I like the ball of yarn in the basket because it looks like one of my favorite yarn types: cotton crochet thread.
It was fun to look at this kit and compare it to mine. I use many of the same tools, but they look very different!
The gauge ruler in the above picture goes up to 4″! It’s pretty neat to see the same 4″ standard for gauge in 1894 that I’m used to in 2022. I’m not so interested in sewing or knitting myself, but I enjoyed looking at these old tools in the handicraft family.
You can pay for a guided tour of the first and second floors, but that wasn’t in our plan for the day. All we did was look at this display case (and glance at a couple of other less interesting ones). Then we moved along—I think we went to the beach after that.
This was an unexpected, cool vacation bonus!
— Kelsey
Hi! Mary Stewart here. Thank you for appreciating my collection. I am a sewer and knitter and have been collecting these little odds and ends since I was a teenager. Some are from my grandmothers’ sewing boxes. Others I have picked up on my rambles through vintage shops and shows. I do use some of these gadgets. One of my prize possessions is not in the display. It’s not Victorian or Edwardian but it is older than i am! My primary sewing machine is a Singer Featherweight, made in New Jersey in March of 1948. I use it almost daily. One of the things I like about my treasures is that they make me feel connected to generations of women who came before me.
I am geeking out right now! Thank you for reaching out here and for sharing your collection on display. I agree about feeling connected to generations of women before—not through collecting, for me, but just through crafting itself and being able to recognize the same types of tools I use from displays like this. Very cool! I will now associate New Jersey with vintage sewing machines in my mind. 🙂