19th Century Leather Children's Shoe

thingiverse

This leather children's shoe was most likely created by an enslaved craftsman named Old Jack in 1862 for the Nolan family, residents of Cleveland County, North Carolina. The shoe can be seen at the North Carolina Museum of History as part of its permanent collection and is often displayed within "The Story of North Carolina" exhibit. More information about this significant piece of history can be found on susannalee.org. To capture a precise digital version of the shoe, it was scanned using a MakerBot Digitizer 3D desktop scanner. This powerful device features two guiding lasers and a video camera that capture the intricacies of an object's surface details. The scanning process occurs on an automatic turntable that slowly turns the object while multiple scans are taken to combine in software, generating a single detailed scan. The shoe was first scanned flat on its sole and then positioned to sit upright on its heel for another thorough scan. Combining these two comprehensive scans yielded a detailed three-dimensional model of the shoe that showcases telltale signs of wear and tear along with its richly textured upper and lower surfaces.