The Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society has a large collection of more than 2,500 objects collected and donated by our residents since we opened in 1935. We went through our archives and brought out pieces from the 1800s to include in the new exhibits that have opened recently.
A dough bowl from Rosegill Plantation dating from the early 1800s is one such piece. This wooden vessel was used to hand-knead flour, water and yeast together to make bread dough. Its high wooden sides insulated the proofing dough from cold drafts and allowed it to rise evenly.
Bread was a basic diet staple, and this bowl would have been used daily by Rosegill’s enslaved kitchen staff to make rolls and breads to augment the wildfowl, fish, and game eaten by our earlier county residents.
