Hobo Homecoming

Hobos from all over are gathering this weekend in Britt, Iowa, to honor their lifestyle, traveling by rail across the country to seek employment.

While there is actually a Hobo Museum in Britt, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has several examples of hobo handiwork in its folk art collection.

Conventionally known as tramp art in the folk art market, these wooden cigar box objects illustrate a craft phenomenon that flourished between 1870 and 1920. The distinguishing feature of tramp objects is their chip-carved, layered-wood construction with a stained or varnished finish; the bright colors of this cigar box pin cushion are unusual.… The romantic notion of the hobo whittling to earn a meal is largely inaccurate; "tramp" works—combs or ornamental trinket chests, cabinets, hanging shelves, sewing boxes and cushions, picture frames, home altars, crucifixes, match holders, and doll furniture—may have been produced for sale, but it is far more likely that they were produced for personal or family use.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: Unidentified artist, n.d., "Cigar Box" Pin Cushion, about 1880–1920, carved, stained, and varnished wood with glass beads and velvet, 12 1/8 x 10 x 10 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.