Preserving a 165-Year-Old Frock Jacket

Some of us get excited when we find new things, but others of us get excited when we ponder and appreciate old, historical things.  It's an amazing feeling when we get to hold artifacts in our hands, turn them over, feel them, feel their weight, and realize the significant of the items.  The preservationists at the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City must be tired of that feeling by now.  After over three decades of pulling artifacts out of their freezer storage and preparing them for display in the museum, their job is still not over:  they will likely still be working on their find for another decade or two into the future.

One example of this is the jacket in the video.  This jacket, along with most of the 200 tons of goods that were on the Arabia when she sank, was probably meant to be sold in a retail store near the head of the Oregon and California Trails.  It is a never-worn woolen jacket.  This one, however, has portions that are even untouched by the Missouri River mud.  Like most of the items on display in the museum, this one will look like new, even though it is 165 years old.

What story does it tell?  Can you see a character in history?  A father embarking on the westward trails, dragging a family onto a covered wagon for months with no certain future?  A father bartering the jacket with other travelers in exchange for food for his family?  A father wearing the jacket while digging a shallow grave for one of his children who succumbed to illness.  A father giving the jacket to his wife as she shivers in the cold Rocky Mountains during the winter?