STEADFAST SOLDIERS FROM THE FIVE AND DIME

Infantryman

In 2008 the Lynchburg Museum acquired a large collection of toy soldiers from Mr. Buddy Schmidt. These are not the typical tin soldiers associated with the Christmas tale; these soldiers are made of lead. Likely, the toy soldiers were produced by the Barclay Manufacturing Company, which was located in West Hoboken, New Jersey. Barclay became famous for its line of “Dimestore Doughboys,” several of which are pictured here. Reproductions may still be purchased from the Barclay website.[i]

Source: http://www.barclaycompany.com

The term “Dimestore” comes from the most common place a little boy could buy his toy soldiers – the “Five and Dime” store.  The average price of the items in their bins was either a nickel or a dime.  At its height, Barclay was manufacturing half a million toys a WEEK![ii]

Signal Corpsmen with flags, carrier pigeons, radio, and antenna

 

Artilleryman with anti-aircraft gun

Artilleryman about to load a cannon shell

The name “Doughboy” is a nickname for American soldiers dating back to the nineteenth century and was used predominantly during World War I. The exact origin of the nickname is unknown. Several possibilities include: the American soldier's love of British "fried flour dumplings" while overseas in World War I, a slang term for their pale skin, and a name for a cook's apprentice.[iii] Post-WWI replicas of the famous sculpture, The Spirit of the American Doughboy, by V.M. Viquesney, were purchased or commissioned by cities around the United States.[iv] Of course, Lynchburg has its own beloved Doughboy at the base of Monument Terrace.

Lynchburg's own Doughboy at "The Listening Post"

Infantrymen

The first ‘five and dime’ was F.W. Woolworth’s, originally called the “Great Five Cent Store.” Children could buy marbles, embroidery kits, magnets, toy soldiers, and potato guns while mom could get notions and other cheap household items. Woolworth’s was also one of the first stores to allow customers to shop without the assistance of a sale clerk.[v]  Other ‘five and dime’ chains included Ben Franklin, S.S. Kresge (K-Mart), and Walton’s Five and Dime (Wal-Mart). Lynchburg had a variety of five and dimes scattered throughout the downtown area. Other local stores such as Leggett’s, Guggenheimer’s, and Bragassa’s would have offered a selection of dimestore toys.

Gunner with machine gun

A selection of dimestore doughboys are currently on display, along with other vintage toys, on the third floor of the Lynchburg Museum at the Old Court House in Gifford Gallery. The Museum also has numerous issues of “Old Toy Soldier,” a collector’s magazine, generously donated to us by Mr. Roger Garfield.

Mess Hall potato peeler, cook, and food server

Eventually, the lead soldiers disappeared from the five and dimes, but not due to any health risks. By the 1960s, plastic toy soldiers were a cheaper, lighter alternative and soon filled the bins at variety stores. 

Two litter bearers take a wounded comrade to a homemade hospital

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[i] http://www.barclaycompany.com/servlet/StoreFront, accessed 12/17/2013.

[ii] Young, William H. and Young, Nancy K. 2007. The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing.

[iii] http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/origindb.htm, accessed 12/17/2013.

[iv] http://doughboysearcher.weebly.com/, accessed 12/17/2013.

[v] http://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/aboutwoolies.html, accessed 12/17/2013.

*WORLD WAR II TRENCH "ART"IFACT*

 
Keeping the theme of Veteran’s Day in mind, November’s selection for the Lynchburg Museum System’s "Awesome Artifact" is a relic from World War II. The above ashtray belonged to Lynchburg resident John G. White, who served in Holland. What may actually look like a useful souvenir actually symbolizes two significant things: the genre of trench art in art history, which can be highly collectible, and even more so, the historical event to which the artifact is linked.  Right: As far as materials used, the base is fashioned from a brass 105mm M14 Type 1 artillery shell casing, with other parts constructed from varying sizes of bullets.




Left: Two coins bearing the profile of the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina are welded to the side. Engraved along the sides it says "SPekholzerheide John G. White Holland 1945 Souvenir." John G. White later worked as a custodian in the Circuit Court of Lynchburg from 1955-1981.

Military souvenirs and relics have always existed through history but the actual term "trench" art came from a specific time period. World War I was known for its trench warfare but also for the art that evolved during that time.

Source: http://makinghistoryatnorthumbria.wordpress.com/tag/battle-of-the-somme/

As seen in the above photo from WWI's Battle of the Somme, there was no shortage of artillery shell casings, and many were often engraved with names, dates, and illustrations of previous battles.¹ Bullets, aluminum, buttons, shrapnel, empty ammunition clips, and other items were picked up off of the battlefields and became personal mementos or artistic assemblages of souvenirs. The creation of trench art was not often done by the entrenched, though the men had long periods of boredom between fighting. Items were frequently made away from the battlefields and trenches as the hammering of metal and other processes used to create the art would have given one’s position away to the enemy. In her book Trench Art: An Illustrated History, author Jane Kimball lists several categories that these artworks fall into and the reasons for their creation:

• War souvenirs collected by soldiers or non-combatants during the war and during the demobilization period and modified in some way to serve as a remembrance of the war.
• Souvenirs crafted by soldiers during the war.
• Souvenirs made for sale to soldiers by other soldiers or civilians during the war.
• Souvenirs made by prisoners of war in exchange for food, cigarettes or money.
• Mementos of the war made by convalescent soldiers.
• Post-war souvenirs made for tourists visiting the battlefields.
• Post-war souvenirs made by commercial firms in trench-art style.

White’s trench art ashtray is specifically linked to the liberation of the Dutch city Spekholzerheide, located in province of Limburg in the Netherlands. In this case, the Museum knows all of this because the artifact made it clear by its markings. Many trench art pieces do not have such wonderful information written on them! However, it is not known whether White (or a fellow soldier) made the souvenir by hand or if he purchased it. The town was liberated from the Germans by the Allied forces on September 17, 1944. The Dutch had been neutral during the first World War and maintained their neutrality until the Nazis invaded in 1940. Though the Nazis felt the Dutch themselves were nearly pure in their Aryan descent, many Jews had come to the Netherlands to escape the persecution across Europe.² Queen Wilhelmina left her country and rallied against the Nazis from afar. Although living in an occupied nation caused hardship, the true suffering of the Dutch people did not begin until after the D-Day invasion in June 1944. In response to the invasion, the Germans blockaded food coming into the Netherlands, causing a horrific famine. This famine, which lasted until the liberation in the fall of 1944, resulted in the deaths of many and severe malnourishment caused lasting maladies in the survivors.³

Trench art is a genre which will continue to remain active as long as war is waged. As mentioned above, the categories are broad as well as the range of materials used. Some of these mementos may be akin to trophies, memorials to lost friends, or on the shelf for purchase in battlefield gift shops. The Lynchburg Museum is fortunate to have such an amazing artifact from a local veteran who was there to witness the inevitable fall of Hitler's Nazis.


¹ Trench Art: An Illustrated History, http://www.trenchart.org/ (accessed 11/07/13).
² Survival and Resistance: The Netherlands Under Nazi Occupation, http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/netherlands.html (accessed 11/12/13).

³ Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study, http://www.dutchfamine.nl/index_files/study.html (accessed 11/14/13).



- C.P. DeSilvey, Curatorial Assistant, Lynchburg Museum System

An Embalming Kit from Lynchburg's Oldest Business

 

Belonging to Walter A. Shaw, this embalming kit (ca. 1918) was used by the Diuguid Funeral Service, Lynchburg’s oldest surviving business and the second oldest funeral home in the country. While many might find this artifact a morbid oddity, this embalming kit gives us an opportunity to consider the history of this significant Lynchburg firm and the often overlooked work of the mortuary profession.

From Furniture Making to Funerals
The firm’s founder, Sampson Diuguid (1795-1856), was a furniture maker by trade, who settled in Lynchburg in 1817. Diuguid was a descendant of French Protestant Huguenots, and his unusual family name is believed to be a contraction of “Dieu Guide” meaning “God our guide.”(1)

Diuguid was initially a partner in the firm Winston and Diuguid, described as “Cabinetmakers, Upholsters, and Undertakers” in this December 14, 1818 notice in the Lynchburg Press:
“In expressing their gratitude for past favors, [Winston and Diuguid] respectfully informs the public that they have on hand a general assortment of furniture which they will sell on accommodating terms . . . They have likewise an assortment of cabinet makers materials for sale on the most accommodating terms, also an assortment of Windsor Chairs of good materials and workmanship. N. B. Their Hearse will in future run for customers free of charge[.] W&D” (2)


In the 1820s, Diuguid started operating independently, beginning to establish the respected funeral service that continues to the present-day. Recorded in 1820, the first entry in Diuguid’s burial records indicates that the furniture maker agreed to make a coffin for the child of John Victor, a Lynchburg silversmith, who repaid Diuguid with a set of silver spoons.(3)  In 1827, Diuguid purchased property at 616 Main Street, where his business remained for over 100 years until moving to 1016 Rivermont Avenue in the 1930s.

Diuguid's Legacy of Innovation & Record-Keeping
After Sampson Diuguid’s death in 1856, the business passed to his sons, and by 1880 his son George and grandson William were partners in the family firm. Inspired by seeing President James Garfield’s coffin during his elaborate 1881 funeral, this father and son team invented the wheeled catafalque, also called a church truck, which is still used to roll caskets down narrow aisles.(4) Grandson of the founder, William Diuguid, carried the firm into the 20th century and owned the funeral home at the time when embalmer William A. Shaw would have used this kit.  William Diuguid’s daughter Mary Sampson Diuguid, great-granddaughter of the founder, operated the funeral home from 1927-1948 and had a reputation for conducting weekly cleanliness inspections of the facility.


In 1946, Diuguid’s conducted their largest funeral, that of Senator Carter Glass. James P. Wilkerson, Jr., who worked at the home for over 50 years, remembered that the funeral procession stretched all the day from Diuguid’s to Spring Hill Cemetery.  Diuguid’s was the first funeral home in Virginia to use a motorized hearse although the firm also maintained a horse-drawn hearse for those who preferred it. Through the mid-twentieth century, funeral homes, like Diuguid’s, provided ambulance service as part of their business, although this transitioned to being the job of hospitals later in the century. Diuguid’s remained within the family for just over 130 years, being sold in 1948.(5)

In addition to Diuguid's contributions to Lynchburg business history and the funerary profession, the firm has left a valuable legacy through their careful record-keeping. In 1866, their records aided the United States government in moving the bodies of Union soldiers from Lynchburg cemeteries for re-interment in a National Cemetery near Norfolk.(6)  Now available online at the Old City Cemetery’s website, the Diuguid Burial Records include all the services provided by the firm from its first entry on January 14, 1820 through April 28, 1951, serving as an indispensable resource for genealogists and historians. Visitors to the Old City Cemetery can also view artifacts relating Diuguid’s, funerary practices, and mourning customs at their Mourning Museum and the Hearse House and Caretakers’ Museum.  

1. History of Diuguid Funeral Service, http://www.diuguidfuneralservice.com/who-we-are/history-of-diuguid-funeral-service (accessed 1 October 2013).
2. Diuguid Biographical File, Lychburg Museum System.
3. Diuguid Burial Records at the Old City Cemetery: About the Records, http://www.gravegarden.org/diuguid/about/index.php (accessed 18 October 2013).
4. History of Diuguid Funeral Service, http://www.diuguidfuneralservice.com/who-we-are/history-of-diuguid-funeral-service (accessed 1 October 2013).
5. Christina Nuckols, “Longtime owner of Diuguid’s recalls business’s earlier days,” The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va., Sunday, February 12, 1995.
6. Diuguid Funeral Home Business File, Lynchburg Museum System.

--Author: Brandi Marchant, Museum Guide