Broom

Description

Wide, flat polishing broom covered with felt or flannel and canvas over the broom corn. 4' 7" long pine handle. 18" wide broom head has cones set vertical to and into wooden cross-head. The cones are about 18" long. Remains of a hanging strap at the end of the handle.

Notes

Broad bottomed, heavy brooms such as this one, were not used for sweeping, rather, with their canvas and felt covers they were used for polishing floors. Although this type of broom is made of the same materials as a common Shaker flat broom--broom corn, linen cord, and a wooden handle, it is constructed in such a way that the attachment of the broom corn to the wood cross piece keeps the broom flat rather than needing to be clamped flat in a vise and sewn with multiple courses of cord to hold its shape. After their use in the Shaker community, these brooms became part of the Shaker handicraft collection in the museum maintained at Darrow School, which had purchased Church Family property at Mount Lebanon. A photograph taken in 1936 by Darrow School senior, Winthrop B. Coffin, shows the broom missing its cover among other objects in the museum. Reference: The Peg Board (New Lebanon, NY: Darrow school, 1935), p. 34.