Design sketches for the handles of walking sticks from Sheldrake's Notebook |
The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology has a large collection of manuscripts, including some rather odd miscellaneous items. The Practical Notebook of Thomas B. Sheldrake (fMSS 001279 B SCDIRB Dibner Library) contains handwritten notes for the construction and use of batteries and "apparatus for showing electrical phenomenon," as well as instructions for electroplating and plaster-casting. Sheldrake, a self-described working cabinet maker about whom little else is known, also collected these whimsical hand-drawn sketches of "designs for the tops of walking sticks, 1860" in his notebook.
--Diane Shaw, Special Collections Cataloger, Smithsonian Institution Libraries
I suggest that these also be cataloged and/or tagged as canes since this is a more commonly used term among collectors.
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