Object of the Month January 2022

Painted Tin Squirrel Cage, 1840-1880.

NPS

In the mid-19th century, children of the Ridgely family of Hampton appreciated squirrels so much that they kept them as pets. They even enjoyed having their picture taken with them, as these carte-de-visite photos taken in a Baltimore studio around 1862 testify. Brothers Howard and Otho Ridgely are seen with their pet squirrel on a leash.

A generation earlier Howard and Otho’s aunt, Eliza “Didy” Ridgely, also owned a pet squirrel, oddly named “Bunny.” In her journal for 1842, thirteen year old Didy describes her new pet: “When we got there [Hampton]…I got Mrs. Severe to get our squirrel cage out of the garret for our new squirrel which brother had brought up in his pocket. After making little Caroline [Caroline Davis, an enslaved child then age five] clean the cage we set it out in the sun to dry and replacing Bunny in brother’s pocket we went to look at the strawberry beds…”

Carte-de-Visite of Howard and Otho Ridgely, Baltimore, c. 1862.

NPS

Later that year, Didy reported in her diary that another enslaved girl named Eliza [Wells, born 1833], who had been tasked with cleaning the squirrel cage, may have killed Bunny because she disliked the very unpleasant task of cleaning the “disagreeable” animal’s cage. There is of course no way to know if this is true, nevertheless Eliza was punished. The annual list of Christmas gifts for the enslaved children of Hampton which Didy recorded notes in 1842 that Eliza Wells was “not to receive any gift.”