Corner cupboard

Creator

Lee, Ole A., 1851-1919

Date

• 1870-1900

Summary

• Corner cupboard attributed to Ole A. Lee, Town of Springdale, Dane County, 1870-1900. This corner cupboard features a large molded cornice and a shaped skirt. The upper and lower doors and the upper corners are stenciled with daisy and fan shapes in dark brown paint. Heavily varnished finish. The interior is painted white with three shelves in the upper section and two in the lower section.
• Born in Valdres, Norway in 1851, Ole A. Lee married Sarah Mickelson in 1876. He worked as a cabinetmaker and carpenter and played a prominent role in the conduction of services at Springdale Lutheran Church in Dane County, Wisconsin. The cupboard is one of dozens of artifacts that came to the Mt. Horeb Area Historical Society from the estate of Delma Donald Woodburn (1899-2001), who carefully documented and preserved the material heritage of her family's life in Mount Horeb and Madison, Wisconsin. A note from Woodburn dated 1974 indicates that the cupboard was used on the Donald farm in the Town of Springdale and may have been made by Ole Lee, a neighbor of the family. "Corner cupboard--was in the northwest corner of a square room that had been added to the Donald House. A wash bowl and pitcher and pail were next to the door. The maple table was over against the wall where they brought in the milk. The square room was added to the house about when I was born . . . White handle porcelain. Had a varnish finish. The woodwork in the Donald House was always varnish. Held food--packages of sugar, salt, cornflakes. Some dishes. Pots and pans on the lower shelves. A "Lee" built this and from things I remember it must have been Ole and Michele [Mikkele] Lee . . . They were Springdale neighbors."