Children of the Pioneers
Leather bottom portion of a child's shoe. This shoe is one of a pair found in association with the personal effects of the Atchison family and belonged either to a four-year-old girl or a five-year-old boy.
Other leisure activities including reading and drawing, which stayed with children as they matured into adulthood. Artifacts used for these activities, as well as accounts of their use, illustrate that despite the hardships faced by pioneers, individuals still took time for personal enjoyment and cultivation of the self. These were fundamental aspects of middle-class values and Victorian ideals.