A Sixth "What In the World Is It?"

Congratulations to JS Beckerman for correctly identifying the fifth vintage item in the collection of the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society. It is, as noted, a pill box and one of the (square) labeled pill boxes in the historical society collection can be seen here. The pill box from the collection was issued from Kaiser's Pharmacy, which was in the "Bank Building" as the box notes. That bank building was at 341 Millburn Avenue, at the intersection of Millburn and Main, on the corner that is now home to Deborah Gilbert Smith and that stands next to the bridge.

One improvement in the Kaiser pill box is the fact that the lid is hinged to the bottom of the box. The older round pill boxes had detachable lids, which could have easily been put back on the wrong pill box if more than one was open. The pill box in last week's post also has on the top "Rhubarb pills," and in light of the fact that rhubarb leaves are poisonous (but not the stems), it is disturbing to realize how easy it was for small children to get to and ingest the contents of those very non-childproof pill boxes.

Patch readers may be more familiar with the pillbox of the sort that Jacqueline Kennedy popularized with her pillbox hats. The 1950s hat photo here is from the Bramcost Publications blog, is labeled "Pillbox Hat," and shows the clear resemblance of the hat to its namesake.

This week's item is nearly identical to two similar items in the historical society museum collection, but the museum items are stored on a high shelf, so we are posting a photo of this nearly identical one from a personal collection. It is made of wood, of course, and is about 7" wide x 6" high. Can you guess what it is?

We will use this blog to highlight unusual objects at the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society museum. The objects will be posted with only minimal information, so we encourage you to guess what the object is or what its purpose was. In approximately one week, information about the object will be revealed and a new object will be posted.

The first person with a correct guess will receive a small custom gift from the historial society and is invited to contact us at mshhs@comcast.net, to let us know whether to mail/deliver the gift or expect a visit to the museum (we appreciate pickups).

[Many thanks to Millburn High School volunteer Anna Gracey for scanning the objects and composing the introduction.]