Ax

Dates: between 1900 and 1904

Item Number: 224719

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.