Browse Items (49 total)

  • Tags: popular culture

Hobo doll

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From the book "The Hobo Style". Items found in the National Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa. Creator unknown.

Hard Rock Kid hobo doll

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From the book "The Hobo Style". Items found in the National Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa. Doll made by Helen Pechota.

Pennsylvania Kid hobo doll

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From the book "The Hobo Style". Items found in the National Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa. Made by Helen Pechota.

Hobo cartoon "If you're so darn smart, why a'int you rich?"

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From the book "The Hobo Style". Items found in the National Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa.

Medicine Bottles & Nicotine Sulfate

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The Hobo Medicine Co. became located in Shreveport, LA as early as November 14, 1914, and Beaumont, Texas by January 1, 1923.

A 1938 letter to a Texas physician from the American Medical Association Bureau of Investigation: "Government chemists…

Wood Carved Shoe

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Very detailed, hand carved, holes were hand-drilled. Could be used as a match holder – very utilitarian. Sabot is a French word from which sabotage is derived. Wobblies carved wooden shoes to symbolize their disdain for rich captains of industry…

Hobo Natural Pear Wood Beard & Stache Comb

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A comb was indispensable for the hobo to neaten hair & beard to appear well-groomed during his job hunting. The hobo beard oil (from HoboCompany, Hutto, TX) goes with this display, plus any other grooming aides in the collection.

The Hobo Company…

Hobo Soup can

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Quoted from the can label: "Hobo Soup was 'born' in the restless, creative mind of Lem Kaercher, a small-town newspaper publisher from Ortonville, Minnesota. In 1953, Lem went into the 'jungles' of Ortonville in search of a feature story on Mr. Hobo,…

Hobo bread button

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Traditionally, travelers would bake bread over a jungle fire in a #10 tin can. Today, many bakeries have used the hobo figure for business reasons, including the naming of businesses.