History Mystery #15: Two solutions!

Our latest History Mystery – a very old segmented tray – received a lot of responses, more than 20 in all. This was a special mystery in that it was the first time we have had to make a major revision to the solution (obtained from a rural historical museum) based on new information submitted by readers.

Four people guessed an ice cube tray. Claude AI also thought it was an ice cube tray:

Unfortunately, cast iron is hard to use for ice cube trays (most early metal trays were made of aluminum). The tray from the museum also looks like it was from the late 1800s or early 1900s, predating the spread of home refrigerators in the 1920s and 1930s.

More than 10 people said it was for baking. Here are some responses:

A muffin pan for wood burning cook stoves.” - Janet O.

“Metal tray is for baking mini breads. My Grandmother & Mom had one.” - Patti M.

“Your mystery object looks like a baking pan that I have for making individual loaves; I usually use mine for corn bread, but it could work for yeast rolls. Mine was my mother's, but I don't know its previous history.” - Rebecca S.

“It's a cast-iron French roll pan. Probably made by Griswold. My Norwegian-American Grandmother had a couple of these that had been handed down to her.” - Sandi B.

Here’s the label that was used by the rural museum in northern New York:

One person, Hope Y., guessed it was a soap mold. She explained further:

“It doesn’t look right for a baking tray or mold, but the dimensions make sense for soap. My family is country all the way back and it seemed familiar.”

But this is not case closed! Another reader, Mike H., blew everything wide open with this comment and a picture of a very similar looking tray:

I looked up gem pans, which were patented just before the Civil War. An antique store posted a similar picture, which also looks like a close match. The caption read:

“Wonderful 1860s Cast Iron gem pan made by made by Nathaniel Waterman of Boston Massachusetts in the late 1800s and only marked patented April 5,1859. The pan is known as a ‘New England Style’ French Roll pan or Gem pan has 12 cups, horizontal semi-cylindrical.”

So, the readers who guessed it was some sort of baking tray were indeed correct (apologies for early emails to respondents that said otherwise). 

Wait. What about the museum ... Did the curator make a mistake?

Possibly not. Another antique store carried a similar tray with a caption indicating dual use: “soap making mold/cornbread pan.”

We can see a late 1800s farm couple repurposing an old cornbread tin for making soap, or for other purposes - a seed tray, sorting differently sized tacks, and so on. In other words, while it started life as a gem pan for baking, it ended its life as a soap mold.

Thanks to all who participated. The next history mystery will arrive later in the summer.