Foot Warmer

Period1840

MediumPine, ash, tin, iron

Dimensions7.38 × 15.75 × 11 in. (18.7 × 40 × 27.9 cm)

ClassificationsPersonal Care

Credit LineGift of Miss Marion Symmes, 1937

Object number1019

DescriptionA large rectangular foot warmer, comprised of a dark stained wood frame, with upper and lower slatted panels and turned corner posts. A soldered tin box fits within the frame. The sides, back, and top panels are ornamented with pierced or punched motifs depicting geometric patterns. The front door panel is boldly punch inscribed with "PRESENTED BY / JAS PRICE TO THE / REV S. C. HENRY / JAN. 1 1840," and closes with a simple shaped wire toggle loop handle. A sturdy iron bail handle is fastened to the top portion of the foot warmer frame. When opened, the door reveals a removable heavy sheet iron rectangular basket with a rolled tab pull to hold hot coals.
Curatorial RemarksFor centuries, foot warmers were practical and portable heat sources. The basic form - a metal box set within a wooden frame - was used since Medieval times. An inner removable compartment held hot coals, allowing its user to warm cold feet by placing them on or near the frame. In eighteenth and nineteenth century America, punched tin foot warmers provided oxygen for the coals, while providing their makers with decorative possibilities. Handles on the warmers enabled the users to carry the boxes with them from room to room and from home to carriage or sleigh. In the cold winter months, church goers would bring their foot warmers to stave off chill during the long services.This unusually large foot warmer was made as a commemorative gift, the name of both giver and recipient boldly punched into the warmer's hinged front door.NotesThis unusually large foot warmer was boldly identified on the punched tin door with the inscription "PRESENTED BY / JAS PRICE TO THE / REV S.C. HENRY / JAN. 1 1840." Symmes Cleves Henry (1797 - 1857) served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Cranbury, Middlesex County, New Jersey for 37 years. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Princeton in 1815, Henry attended Princeton Seminary from 1815 to 1818. After graduating, Henry preached in Salem, Massachusetts (1818) and Rochester, New York (1819), and as assistant to the Rev. Dr. Ely at the Third Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. In August of 1820 Symmes Henry was installed as the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury, New Jersey. In 1826, Henry married Catherine Ann Rowley (1801-1863). The couple had five children, three of whom died in infancy. Their daughter Mary married the Reverend Joseph Gaston Symmes (1824-1894). After Henry's death in 1857, his daughter and son-in-law returned to Cranbury, where Symmes took up his father-in-law's position as pastor. Mary and Joseph's son Frank Rosebrook Symmes (1870 - 1925) followed his father and grandfather into the clergy, serving as pastor of Old Tennent Church in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, for 29 years. The foot warmer was presented to Reverend Henry in 1840 by James Price, a member of the congregation, to commemorate Henry's twenty years as pastor at Cranbury. Marion Symmes, Reverend Henry's great granddaughter, presented the foot warmer to the Historical Association in 1937.

ProvenanceRev. Symmes Cleves Henry (1797 - 1857) to his daughter Mary Rosebrook Henry (Mrs. Joseph G.) Symmes (1828 - 1895), to her son Rev. Frank Rosebrook Symmes (1870 - 1925), to his daughter Maron Symmes (1895 - 1993)