-Log Cabin (mustard jar)- still bank c. 1890

This -Log Cabin (mustard jar)- still bank, was produced by Westmoreland Specialty Company. These types of glass containers were designed to be both functional and decorative. This piece evokes a romanticized vision of frontier life, but it also prompts us to consider the labor and resources required to build a home and a life in a new territory. Who had access to these resources, and who was displaced in the process? The log cabin is a very specific architectural form. It speaks to the myth of American self-reliance, and the pioneering spirit, while simultaneously eliding the history of Indigenous peoples' displacement and the exploitation of immigrant labor that made westward expansion possible. It's a powerful symbol, loaded with cultural meaning, and rendered here in miniature, almost as a keepsake.