This is a keepsake “miniature trunk” which was donated to the Botetourt History Museum in 2012 by Phyllis Austin Burch Tenser. She purchased it from the widow of Garnet McFerran, who was born in 1881, and made it out of wood. The top has a stylized flower design. This is a picture of the inside showing decoupage images. One is of a young woman in a blue dress, long white gloves and white scarf standing in a garden. There are several compartments inside. Similar trunks or boxes were made and sold by Montville G. Lawson and his family in a barbershop in Fincastle. Come see this artifact and others in the African American display case at your free BCHS Museum, which is open every day.
~ Botetourt County History Museum