The Steger Trunk

A visitor here at the Coot Hill Preservation Society Headquarters will, on entering the Lower East Gallery,
take delighted note of this old trunk.  He will also notice that the Curators have not properly replaced the missing leather handle on this side, or indeed on the other, except with. . . oh, Lord. . .bale twine!

On recovery from this shock, the visitor relents on noting that the  tin  trunk is cleaned off,
and the wooden bands, that act like buffers or fenders, have even been polished with lemon oil.

The latch does not stay closed.  There is no key.  Does some family member somewhere
have a key that might belong to this trunk?  If so, can we deal?

I love the "alligator-hide" tinwork.  I went to the trouble of forcing Marty to heave this thing down
from the Marilla attic, so I get to invent the term "alligator-hide tinwork."  

One of the two latches shows the impressive detail of the work.  This is of German  manufacture.
It belonged to the Steger family, a prominent family of German immigrants to Buffalo in the late
nineteenth century.  Adam and Clara Matynka bought the house at 554 Walden Avenue from the Steger family, who had operated a tailor shop in the front rooms.  Eugene Zdrojewski established his optometry offices in those front rooms soon after. And for all those years - like about 100 - this trunk was in the attic, the grey gritty shadowy attic, at 554 Walden Avenue.

Somebody in the Steger family had this trunk, possibly on a trip west over the Atlantic.
See the hatch on the left?  It contained a Bible and a couple of photographs.  I'll show them in a future post,
especially if people visit this blog and post comments and tell stories and historical tidbits.

The brown cloth is fragile at the place where the hatch hinges forward.  So is the paper picture of the  lassie
madchen rowing her rowboat in the picture.

This picture, adorning the curvy part, is in better shape.  We keep our winter things in this trunk, keeping soft stuff on top so as not to damage the pictures.

I would so love to be clued in as to any details anyone might have about this trunk.



Julie