Checking Out an Artifact’s Story
When I began as curator, The La Crosse County Historical Society had a crocheted shawl which was waiting to be catalogued. The deed of gift accompanying the shawl explained that it had been handed down in the donor’s family, with a note stating that Johanna Bantle Heileman had worn it while “at sea” on her journey to America in 1852. Someone had jotted a comment on the deed of gift, wondering about the authenticity of the shawl, and whether it could really be that old. Good question! While family stories always have at least a kernel of truth in them, over time details get forgotten, or get varnished in the retelling. But there is always information to be gotten from the object itself and sometimes that information can bolster a family’s story or prove it incorrect.
The shawl itself is in very good condition; a triangle of grey crocheted yarn with a wide band of pink along the two long sides, it has a thick fringe and tassels at the neck. The technique of crochet was only developed in the early nineteenth century, when it was used to make lace-like accessories. A nineteenth century crocheted shawl does not in fact look much different from shawls that were fashionable in the 1970s: some of us can remember “granny dresses,” which were often accessorized with a shawl very similar to this one.
I began by examining the fiber the shawl was made from, and confirmed in two tests that it is wool. Viewed under the microscope the fiber was clearly from an animal source, and when I lit a match to a tiny sample of yarn from the fringe it burned with the acrid “burning hair” odor of wool. It also left a soft ash, not a hard, melted bead, confirming that it was from an animal source.
If the yarn had turned out to be acrylic we could say that it was definitively no older than 1944; determining that it is wool does not confine its age to any particular period. For that I needed to examine its style and find out when it came into fashion. Did women make and use shawls like this in 1852, when our shawl was said to have been used by Johanna Bantle as she came to America?
I sent pictures of the shawl to a colleague who is a curator at the Minnesota Historical Society and asked her opinion: could it have been worn in the mid-nineteenth century? She responded quickly and affirmatively, saying that the tassels were a dead give-away for mid-nineteenth century, while the pink color suggested a young person, as an older woman would not have worn such a bright color. She in turn showed the images to one of her volunteers, James Harrington. James is a retired draper with long experience of women’s fashions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He currently shares his knowledge and archives of original source material on his web site, www.dressmakingresearch.com.
James was more specific, and stated that the shawl would have been in style from 1865 to 1875. If he is correct then the shawl can certainly have belonged to Johanna, but would have been made after she emigrated, and after she married Gottlieb Heileman in 1858. Through further research I hope to find documentation of this style of shawl being in use in the 1850s, so that I can prove him wrong and say that Johanna could definitely have been wearing it on the boat when she came to this country. For the time being, I have to concede that this might not be true.
Another step in determining the authenticity of an artifact is to look at the reliability of its source. This shawl was donated by Monica Peterson, Johanna’s great-granddaughter: her father, Robert Emmett Lynch, had been the foster son of Ida, Johanna and Gottlieb’s youngest daughter. Monica and her family have generously donated other Heileman artifacts to the Society, among them a handsome charcoal portrait of Johanna and the wedding dress of her daughter Ida. They have been trustworthy and sincere, motivated by their recognition of the significance of their artifacts, and a desire to see them preserved for the people of La Crosse County. Monica was always told this shawl had been her great-grandmother’s, who had worn it on the boat coming over from Germany.
It may not be possible to confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that the shawl was Johanna’s—that would take a photograph of her wearing it or a reference in a letter to the making or wearing of the shawl. But all evidence confirms the plausibility of Monica’s statement: the material and style of the shawl are consistent with the time period of Johanna Heileman’s life, and it was still owned by a descendent of hers who had always been told it belonged to her great-grandmother. I have no problem believing Monica about the origins of the shawl.
As an historic figure of local pride and interest, Johanna Bantle Heileman is the reason we care about the shawl in the first place. She was born in Württemberg, Germany in 1831, and immigrated to the United States in 1852, at the age of 21. She married Gottlieb Heileman in Milwaukee, in 1858, and moved with him to La Crosse. That same year Gottlieb Heileman and John Gund founded City Brewery, later called G. Heileman Brewing Co., and today once again known as City Brewery. The Heileman Brewery has been an important part of the La Crosse economy for over 150 years.
Johanna and Gottlieb raised eight children, seven girls and one son, in their large brick home on the corner of Third and Winnebago Streets. With the help of her daughters, Johanna provided mid-day dinners for all the unmarried brewery workers. After her husband’s death in 1878 Johanna ran the brewery, and was president of the business from then until her death in 1917 at the age of 85. She was one of the first female CEOs in Wisconsin history, making her an important historic figure not just in La Crosse, but for the state and the country. In portraits and photos later in her life she appears to have a confident, commanding presence. This simple wool shawl, which she wore as a young woman and that is emblematic of her era, is a touching memento of La Crosse’s past.
