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Title | Creator | Date Made Visible | None
Carry Nation's broadax
William Beatty & Son
This steel broad ax was given to Carry A. Nation, a devout Christian and nationally recognized temperance advocate. Nation, a resident of Medicine Lodge, Kansas, achieved infamy for attacking saloons with a hatchet to discourage drinking and was frequently jailed for vandalism. In January 1901, Nation embarked on a highly publicized trip to Topeka, Kansas, to attend a meeting of the Kansas Temperance Union. During her trip, she assaulted multiple saloons while brandishing axes. According to Robert Scott, an employee of a Kansas Avenue hardware store, Nation entered the store during a raid on a nearby saloon and asked, ?Mr. Scott, have you a hatchet I could use?? Scott provided Nation with this axe. William Beatty and Son, a long-established tool company located in Chester, Pennsylvania, produced the axe.
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Iron and oak felling ax marked along one side: "This axe used by Blanche Boise in smashing the glass cover to picture of Custer's Last Fight." Topeka resident Blanch Boise was a follower of the nationally recognized temperance advocate Carry Nation. Boise was known for violent acts directed at entities associated with the illegal consumption of alcohol. On January 9, 1904, Boise entered the Kansas State Historical Society rooms in the Kansas Statehouse and attacked a framed Anheuser-Busch advertisement depicting a print of Cassilly Adam's famous painting, "Custer's Last Fight," found on Kansas Memory with the Item Number of 305138. Boise was arrested and incarcerated that night. Working in conjunction with Carry Nation, Boise later continued her temperance work by smashing the glass fronts of four Topeka saloons and two drugstores.
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