I have this old steamer trunk and want to learn its history. Can anyone tell me anything about it? We have put the time frame at 1877. It has a Patton stamp on the hardware that says Patton 77. That's all we can see. So far we have found that it belonged to WM H. Jackson and by some of the stickers on it, it has been all over. It has Star Line on it and something about AZ. It's a beautiful piece and I would love to know its stories.
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Step 2
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Step 3
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This is a lovely trunk! They are so cool and just filled with stories!
Researching trunks is extremely time consuming but can be a lot of fun, if you want to do it yourself. There are people who make a living doing this, like this gentleman:
www.hmsantiquetrunks.com/
To get started doing it yourself, you can see if you can find out who WM H. Jackson is...could it be this gentleman:
en.wikipedia.org/
When I do research for my company, I just start with Google and see where it takes me. You do have to be careful and the usual rule is you need 3-5 unique sources to confirm truths.
I would take each sticker and each feature of the trunk and learn as much as you can about the item. Like for cities... how would a person get there with a trunk...train, boat, horse/buggy, etc.
With the trunk itself...what kind of wood is it...when did that wood start being used...is it still used...what kind of lock is it...when did they start using that kind of lock, is it still being used?
If you have a history center, you may want to take advantage of their resources as they have search engines that the lay person would have to pay big bucks for and they let you use them for the price of admission.
You will want to create an excel or word document spreadsheet to keep track of your findings...a column for dates, one for information, one for links one for names--do last name first. Each column should be sort-able so you can piece together information quickly.
When you get all your facts together, you can sort in a variety of ways and then read through your findings to see if they make sense or if there are holes or implausible info...like if X company only made locks in 1999 and your trunk has one, it may not be from the 1800s OR it could have been repaired in 1999...so you have to dig deeper to make sure other truths match! It is like a 3 D puzzle! So much fun!!!
As an aside, I am not finding anything about Patton hardware....maybe Cybergrannie knows about this company! She has posted some really great info about other trunks people have asked about!
Let us know what you find! Folks on this site, like me, are hungry to learn more about neat finds and things like trunks and old furniture!
Thanks for sharing!
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