Today’s item is a shoulder yoke. It is a three-and-a-half foot section of a large timber carved to fit a man’s shoulders with cylindrical projections on either end. The idea of the yoke is to enable a worker to carry heavy objects suspended from the rounded ends. His arms are left free of any burden and can balance and steady the load.

The word “yoke,” as in neck yoke, is more commonly associated with oxen, where it refers both to the wooden neck piece that is the main element of their harnesses and to a pair of oxen hitched together with a neck yoke. The human yoke is named for its resemblance to the ox yoke. Yoke can also mean a part of a shirt, a part of a motorcycle, or anciently, in parts of England, a unit of land. The word goes back thousands of years with all meanings sharing a sense of uniting.

Throughout most of human history, the lives of nearly all men, women and children involved a great deal of heavy lifting and carrying. The shoulder yoke, and its relatives long before the wheel, were probably the first invention that did anything to make that task easier.

Victorian and earlier artists filled their paintings with images of milkmaids adorned with shoulder yokes. Full milk pails were suspended on cords or leather thongs, sometimes even light chains, at the ends of the yokes. In 19th-century, Sweden, and to some extent America, more so in 18th-century America, cows were not always brought to the barn for milking. In the summer time, someone, often a child or young woman, went to the pasture and hand-milked the few cows of the small herds of that time. Milk weighs about two pounds per quart, and even the poorly producing cows of old and the very small herds of farms in those centuries mounted up to a difficult task made far easier by the shoulder yokes. Milk from cows milked in the barn was easier to carry to the house if a yoke was used also.

Stacks of bricks were an item often carried by yokes by men doing construction. Wheelbarrows largely replaced the shoulder yoke on construction sites and farms by the 20th century, all the more so when pneumatic tires replaced steel wheels.

The even simpler carrying pole, which would have been far more uncomfortable, may still be in use in the far east.

The specific history of our example is unknown. It was given to us in 1972 by teachers at Washington Junior High School with no history or chain of provenance that has been preserved. In mid-20th century, local history was taught in junior high rather than elementary school and was given a strong emphasis. Both junior and senior high school students formed Yorkers Clubs for additional study of local history. Among other activities, they collected artifacts.

Our example seems excessively heavy and thick. It was apparently intended for an adult man. It is entirely hand-carved from a large piece of timber. The exterior is well-made and smooth, but the inside surface is surprisingly rough and may be unfinished. For all we know, it could have been someone’s 20th century craft project. There is no fabric or padding of any sort and no metal clips or attachments.

Shoulder yokes are not the kind of thing usually mentioned in local histories, period letters and diaries, or reminiscences. When rendered obsolete, they were easily discarded or burned for firewood. The only way I can think of to investigate their prevalence locally in the 19th century would be to examine estate inventories, and this I have not done. It is a shame we don’t know who made this item nor when or where. We don’t even know if it was ever used, much less by whom or what for. Today, we press donors for such information about items they bring in and record them diligently. Availability or absence of such information is one of the most important factors in our decision to take or reject an artifact. In the early days of the museum the staff and volunteers didn’t always have the experience to realize the story is the difference between an old thing and a historic artifact.