Home and Daily Life

This Wheeler and Wilson sewing machine belonged to Lavinia Warren, better known as P. T. Barnum performer Mrs. Tom Thumb. Its ornate wooden case has images of the couple's career painted on the sides.

These eating utensils with curved and angled tips or long necks illustrate how everyday objects are easily adapted. 

Blue and white plastic Bingo card

This device was used to pull on stockings. It is a long wooden pole with a metal stretcher for holding and positioning the hose.

The Sunbeam Moon Glow clock was especially popular with people who were deaf or hard of hearing because of the lighted, flashing dial.

The dial cover on this wristwatch opens so users can read the time with their fingertips.

Joseph Friedman invented a method for bending paper straws in the 1930s. This ad promotes its use in hospitals and sick rooms.

This girl recently graduated from school. She holds a diploma and wears a white dress, with matching shoes and large bow in her hair as she sits in a wicker-backed wheelchair.

A bride and groom walk down the aisle. The bride is in a white dress; the groom, in a suit, has two split-hook hands.

These four friends on the way to Glacier National Park stand in front of a railroad barn and sign the letters “M-A-R-Y”.

Alfred Lemonowicz was a blind saxophone player. 

This musician sits on a stool and holds a violin bow with his right-hand index finger. His violin leans against the stool. He wears a three-piece suit with a watch fob and is a double amputee.

This young boy and his two older companions pose proudly with five large fish dangling from a clothesline. They wear sweaters and are in a back yard; the boy stands with crutches.

This young man out on the slopes lacks gloves and a hat but has poles adapted with four stabilizing prongs. 

Smiling Ada Berg was a grandmother and Florida State fan. She sits in the wheelchair she used after losing a leg to a brown spider bite and holds up an FSU T-shirt.

This card advertised a performing couple of short stature. Ida and George proudly hold hands above their new baby, Cecil.

A woman in a studio portrait wears tinted pince-nez glasses, a long fancy dress, and holds a diploma. 

Father and mother are seated with their young son and daughter standing between them. The father’s left pant leg is tucked under at the knee.

Susan Armbrecht, who had had polio and used a reclining wheelchair, is shown with three other women on a campus green. One of her companions is in a power wheelchair.

 A woman in a house dress and apron waters her lawn and garden. She is stooped and has high shoulders.

On the dance floor, a woman with long wavy hair and a very short dress is led by a man in evening clothes who uses a crutch.

A high school couple in evening clothes and wheelchairs are ready for the dance.

Four unsmiling women of increasing ages and in long dresses, pose with a child on a porch. The eldest wears a dark bonnet and sits in a wheelchair.

This snapshot shows a dozen picnickers, some in wheelchairs or respirators, on a lawn near a lake.

Two teenage girls and a boy are out with a dog. Two of the friends use wheelchairs.

Orthotics refers to braces, crutches, and other techniques for supporting the body, such as this black oxford shoe with a built-up sole.

These two children enjoy the company of the large and friendly woman they are hanging on. Both the boy and girl wear hearing aids; the girl also has thick glasses.

A group of friends polish off ice cream cones. The group poses in a front yard and includes adults, children, adolescents, and a young woman leaning on crutches.

Washington attorney Charles Ruff was the last Watergate special prosecutor, a member of the team who defended Anita Hill in 1991, and President Bill Clinton’s chief counsel during his 1999 impeachment trial. He wore this raincoat, cut to accommodate his wheelchair.