In “The Music Man,” the classic American musical by Meredith Willson, the Act I curtain rises on a late 19th-century train car full of traveling salesmen who chant about selling their wares, in time to the accelerating chug-chug-chug of the train engine. The song begins: “Cash for the merchandise, cash for the buttonhooks, Cash for the cotton goods, cash for the hard goods.” As a child I sang along to the LP, assuming that the salesmen were making up nonsense words with the next line – “Cash for the noggins and the piggins and the firkins.” Not so! It turns out that we have an actual 19th-century firkin right here at the Sippican Historical Society.
Although the dictionary definition of a firkin is “a small wooden tub or cask for butter, lard, or beer,” our firkin was clearly intended to store dried peaches. With the unit capacity of approximately 1/4 of a barrel, the wooden cask is decorated with the original forest green paint, and labeled “DRD PEACHES” in a contrasting color on the front. Our records indicate that it was donated by Mrs. Paul Burdett (Mildred Thayer Burdett) in 1965, along with a number of other items, including a pickle jug, a tavern table, some English pottery, a lap desk, a fireplace grate, a kitchen wall clock, a hook for hanging hams, and a rum bottle in a wicker basket.
Since Mildred Thayer Burdett donated her items to the SHS in 1965, long before it was possible for us to display photographs online, some of these items have only recently been added to our electronic database, with no image associated with the description. Other items have been photographed, but require an updated, clearer image (for example, compare the image above with the one in our database, which is being updated). One of my ongoing tasks as archivist, therefore, is to photograph items and upload the images to our database in order to provide researchers and the general public with full digital access to our historic collections. Of course, our beautifully preserved firkin may also be viewed here at the Museum, thanks to the generosity and foresight of Mildred Thayer Burdett and many others like her who have donated their historic artifacts over the years. I wonder how many readers had ever heard of a firkin before today . . . and how many recognize the word from “The Music Man”!