1.07.108
Pipe
Hodgson Pipe. Material: wood, resin, textile. Size: 9" L. Description: wooden bowl - wooden stem - black hardened material forms curved mouthpiece - gold thread tied around top of stem runs length of stem and ties around bowl - green thread tied around top of stem.
Hodgson Collection. Prior to accessioning, the number 219 was printed in black ink on the bowl. Note from Hodgson's Smoke Rings book: "Mr. Al Landgraf was an old man when he helped Eric Sjostrand build our house in 1921. In 1954 he was nearly 90 when he gave me this pipe. His brother got it from the "Fradel Store" in Rome, Wisconsin before 1892. Al had had it over 25 years." Robert E. Hodgson (1893-1968) was superintendent of the Southern Experiment Station from 1919 to 1960. He promoted modern agricultural methods in Waseca and throughout Minnesota. From 1948 to 1964, Hodgson wrote a column for The Farmer Magazine, and his column “Bob Hodgson Talks” appeared in more than one hundred rural Minnesota newspapers for over 20 years. Hodgson was a member of the Waseca County Historical Society, the Waseca County Horse Thief Detectives, The Boy Scouts and other organizations. Among his many interests were history, nature study and pipe collecting. During World War II, Hodgson wrote a once a month letter to members of Boy Scout Troop 85 who were serving in the armed forces all over the world. The letters were published in the Waseca Journal with separate copies printed and mailed to any Waseca serviceman who wished to receive them. Hodgson’s letters maintained the home contacts, helped men keep up on the locations of friends and provided morale-boosting communications for those far away from home.