sex and gender
GAt first glance, a vast collection of shovels may not seem like a crowd-pleasing exhibit. But dig a bit deeper. The Stonehill Industrial History Center at Stonehill College tells the story of how the Ames family parlayed its success at making shovels into a commercial powerhouse with interests in railroads, copper mining and real estate. The artifacts were originally discovered in 1972 by Arnold B. Tofias, a Brockton real estate developer, after he purchased the former site of Ames Shovel's North Easton factory. Tofias donated the items to Stonehill, where they sat in the basement of a building until early 2002, when curator Gregory Galer decided they were too valuable to American history to keep hidden any longer.