Cane-seat rocking chair used by the Jacobson family, Daleyville, Dane County, ca. 1868-1878.
Object name
Rocking chair
Alternate object name
Lincoln rocker
Date
1868-1878
Location of use
Daleyville, Dane County, Wisconsin
Current location
Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa
Description
The tall, slightly curved stiles of this rocking chair support a curved crest with a wavy top. The arms and arm supports form continuous openwork scrolls. The flat front stretcher and turned side and back stretchers are mortised into the legs, which are mortised into the rockers. The caned back may be original (or replaced early in the life of the chair), but the caning on the seat is a modern replacement.
History
A ca. 1877 photograph by Andreas Larsen Dahl shows this chair in use in the parlor of the Perry Lutheran Church parsonage, Daleyville, Dane County, Wisconsin. This image is available online from the image archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHi-27217): http://wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=27217 Abraham Jacobson served as pastor for the Norwegian Lutheran parish in southwestern Dane County from 1868-1878. During their time in Daleyville, the Jacobson family decorated their home with fashionably modern furnishings such as this Lincoln rocker, a popular form manufactured by many post-Civil War American furniture factories and available throughout the Midwest. The image reveals other elements of a stylish parlor of the 1870s, including a center table, a stereoscope, a hanging beaded basket, and peacock feathers in porcelain vases. The family brought these fine furnishings with them when they returned to Abraham Jacobson's childhood home in Decorah, Iowa in 1878. This chair was passed down in the family and remains among the furnishings of the Jacobson farmstead, now an historic site operated by the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum.
