Sam Houston Memorial Museum Blog

A “Toast” to the Past 

Hi! My name is Joshua Rachita. I am a student worker, and I work in the blacksmith shop here at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. 

It is easy to assume that our tastes as a society have changed over time but in reality, longings for comfort and enjoyment are human nature. While riffling through pictures of iron artifacts from the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries, I came across something rather unexpected. A toaster! I set out to replicate this interesting item and learn the secrets that it holds.

When working on a historical reproduction the end goal is to create as close a copy of the artifact as possible. Though the physical outcome is important, that is not the only result of the reproduction process. Discovering the procedure that the smith from the past used can bring a wealth of knowledge and insight about the past. Many of the techniques that smiths of old used have been lost to sealed lips and time. It is important that we relearn these secrets to continue the legacy of the craft. Through working on the toaster, I learned many techniques that can be used on other projects here in the blacksmith shop. 

In addition to techniques, we can even learn about the people of the past and their values. By analyzing the artifact, we can answer many questions about those who interacted with it. Did the smith take the “easy way out” or did he emphasize quality? Would they have been considered a “good smith”? Who was this made for? Was this item or style unique to this region or were there many blacksmiths producing similar work? These are just some of the questions that we can ask ourselves when interpreting artifacts. Through analyzing the toaster, we can infer some things ourselves. First, an enjoyment of toast is nothing new! It is easy to assume that toast is a newer concept with the invention of the electric toaster but because of the many examples of historic toasters, we know that it was something that would have been fairly common in a household. Though this toaster is rather simple compared to other historic examples, we can also infer that the blacksmith that made this specific toaster was a very good blacksmith because of the high level of excellence that it was completed with. 

Working on projects like this can help us realize how similar we are to the people who lived before us. Simple things like toast can be a way of connecting big picture ideas and values between eras and can help us find new appreciation for the comforts we have today.