Today we remember Thomas Elkins (1818 - Aug. 10, 1900), a physician, antislavery activist, and community leader in Albany, New York. Elkins was also a prolific inventor and patented 3 devices, including a combination dining table, ironing board, quilting frame, an improved chamber-commode (toilet), and this refrigerator, now in our museum collection and digitized into a 3D object. His refrigeration invention received a Certificate of Highest Merit at the New York State Agricultural Fair in 1880.