Our Collection

Animal Shoes

People wear shoes, horses/mules wear shoes, but cows wearing shoes? It sounds like something you would hear in a Dr Suess book, but it is true. Pioneers used oxen/cows to pull wagons, plow fields and build roads all across America as the they moved west and settled in new places. The Ox was the common work force and a valuable partner in this new frontier. So, protecting their feet and helping them to do their job was very important, thus the ox shoe was developed. Now days we have other machines to do this kind of work and the oxen/cows have no need to wear shoes, but it is an interesting bit of history.

Pricing Set

Does this add up? What did they use this for? In today’s stores, everything has a tag or barcode that tells us the price of the object. Before barcodes and price stickers, everything had to have a tag made up just for that item. Stores would use a set of stamps to create individual tags. This set of pricing stamps was donated by Esta Rae Pearce, in memory of Don Pearce.

This pricing set was used at Rhoton’s grocery store in the 1940s to 1950s. Rhoton’s store and blacksmith shop were built on the foundations of the hotel that burned in 1931 along with the Maricopa Depot and other buildings.

This Duke Pricing Set, 12″x7.5″x2″ high. This metal Duke Pricing Set has 46 numbered round stamps 5–39 cents and 2/13 to 2/29 cents, 1 blank. The back has two belt clip-ons so that it could be worn around the waist of the store clerk.