Rock-a-bye-Baby

In keeping with last month’s theme I’m going to focus on an artifact that deals with raising a family during the early twentieth century.  We’ve had a baby bath tub, so what next?  Another common item that we don’t usually think about is our beds.  But that leads to the question of where does, or in this case did, an infant sleep?  From the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection we are given an answer:  a rocking cradle.  Bassinets and cradles were a common choice for infants.

Both cradles and bassinets have been around for hundreds of years if not longer.  According to the Houston Museum of Natural History, “Baby cradles are almost universal objects.”  Both cradles and bassinets are meant for infants.  For a bassinet think of the story of Moses and the basket into which he was put.  Bassinets were more suitable for children up to about age four months or until they could roll over because once they could roll over they could tip the bassinet.  Cradles were a little sturdier and were meant to swing or rock according to www.finewoodworking.com and could be used until the child outgrew it.  Cradles could be as simple as a hollowed out log in the early days or as detailed as the richly carved furniture of royalty.  Cradles were not always what we think of today:  Native Americans had a multitude of styles of cradles “including bark cradles, skin cradles, lattice cradles, board cradles” and basket cradles (www.amish-furniture-home.com).  Both bassinets and cradles are usually rectangular in shape and are meant to cocoon the infant and give them a sense of comfort.  As an infant grew older they would move on to some kind of bed, possibly a trundle bed of sorts that would slide underneath their parents’ bed.

Bassinets and cradles can still be found today but are not as common.  Most families have replaced these two objects with the crib.  While they all may seem very similar, there are distinct differences but all are meant for the same purpose of giving an infant a place to sleep.  For an example of an early wooden rocking cradle stop by the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame and visit the South Gallery where you can see the cradle from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection.