Old Aurora Colony
Museum now features clocks and music boxes in new “American Clock
AURORA — In today’s society, it is rare
to go anywhere without seeing a clock or having to know what time it
is.
Clocks are on walls, in cars, on
watches, on phones, on the radio and on TVs.
Stepping back in time to the mid-1800s
German communal settlement of the Aurora Colony — who lived under the
Golden Rule “Every man and woman must be a brother or sister to every
other man or woman in our family, under the fatherhood of God, every
day” — you find a different sense of time.
The evolution of clock making in America
and its relation to the Aurora Colony is currently on display at the
Old Aurora Colony Museum, in its exhibit “American Clock Making: A
Revolution.”
Clocks dating back to the 1795 brass
movement are included in the display that runs now through Sept. 25.
Bob Higgins, an Aurora Historical
Society board member, clock history specialist, and the curator for
the museum’s display, said that the purpose of the exhibit is twofold.
He said the exhibit illustrates how
clock making became prominent in America, from handmade to mass
produced clocks, and shows which clocks the Aurora Colonists of the
mid-1800s settlement would have used in their homes.
The exhibit includes more than 30 clocks
and four music boxes which were produced in the era of the German
religious communal society that settled in Aurora from 1856 to 1883,
migrating from Germany and then from Bethel, Mo.
The clocks are from both the museum’s
collection and on loan from private collectors. Five of the clocks on
display are from known Aurora descendants of the Kraus, Steinbach and
Fry families.
Though not every Aurora colony family
would have owned a clock in 1856, as more and more commerce depended
on time and the train began stopping in the town known for its German
food and hospitality, more families would have acquired a clock for
their home.
The many clocks on display are all
unique. One 1818 clock features a reverse painting of two ships from
the war of 1812; others have calenders and alarms.
Higgins said most of the clocks in the
exhibit are shelf clocks, and include styles of English ceramic,
kitchen clocks, cottage clocks, shelf clocks, ripple front shelf
clocks, and calender clocks.
Higgins loaned a number of clocks from
his personal collection, including a reproduction of an 1814 box clock
by Eli Terry,
which has a 30-hour wooden works
movement and when first mass produced sold for $15.
The 1795 brass movement on display is
also from Higgins collection, and in contrast to the mass produced
clocks would have cost about a year’s worth of wages at the time.
Terry received the first clock patent
issued in the United States, and is responsible for developing the
techniques for mass producing clocks with interchangeable
wooden gears. One of the 4,000 wooden
gear Tall Case 30-hour clocks, mass manufactured by Terry on contract
beginning in 1807, is on display at the museum. It took him three
years to make all 4,000 contracted clocks.
Prior to Terry’s mass manufacturing
techniques, most clock makers made one clock at a time and only about
12 per year, said Higgins, who has served as past president and a
board member of Chapter 31 of the National Watch and Clock Collectors.
The amount of clocks produced by Terry
was “revolutionary for the time,” he added.
The Aurora Colony was known for its
music, entertainment, and hospitality, so in addition to the clocks on
display, there are several music boxes.
Clocks of the 1800s were used for
functional purposes, however, music boxes were used for entertainment
and most likely played in the parlor, according to the Aurora museum’s
executive director, Joan Jacobs.
The museum’s music box is one of the
four on display. It is “one of the most spectacular music boxes I have
ever seen,” Jacobs said.
The Swiss music box, circa 1870, plays
12 tunes and has butterflies, bees and flowers on the brass bells. The
music box was acquired by Henry T. Finck who was the first Oregonian
to attend Harvard University. He sent the music box to Elizabeth
Proebstel.
Also on display are German cylinder type
and disk type music boxes. One has an inlaid lid, the other has an
illustration of a girl in a hat with ribbons and flowers.
“We have several (clocks and music
boxes) in our collection and thought it would be interesting to bring
the different styles together,” Jacobs said.
“It’s a small exhibit but an example of
the clocks used during the colony era.”
The clocks and music boxes have been
placed in the museum’s main building and a few clocks are in the Kraus
House.
The museum’s permanent exhibits, which
include aspects of life in the 1800 communal settlement, including
music, remain in place.
All five of the museum’s buildings — the
Kraus House, ox barn, Colony Wash House, and Steinbach Cabin — can be
toured during open hours to learn about the self-sufficient community
who produced fruit, lumber, shoes, textiles, furniture, tinware, and
baskets among other goods.
Higgins said the historical society
tries to keep the displays “fresh” and “spotlight the items in the
museum collection about the colony, and put it in context beyond the
colony.”
“The focus is largely to spotlight
colony life and artifacts,” he added.
The current clocks and music box exhibit
will be on display through Sept. 26. The museum is open Tuesday
through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m.
Cost is $3.50 for adults, $3 for seniors
and AAA members, and $1.50 for children.
The museum is located on the corner of
Liberty and Second Streets. For more details, call museum staff at
503-678-5754.
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Eagle Newspapers Inc., 2001 - 2005
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