This vernacular child’s crib is made of walnut with turned posts and spindles. According to Kirkland family tradition, the crib was made by an enslaved laborer at Ayr Mount in the decades prior to the Civil War. The crib features an open side with a fallboard that can be dropped down allowing the crib to be placed next to a bed so the sleeping infant could be in close proximity to the mother.

Kirkland family patriarch and Ayr Mount’s builder, William Kirkland, died in 1836. Three years later, following the death of his widow, Margaret Kirkland, in 1839, their eldest son, John Umstead Kirkland, became the next owner of the property. The crib was presumably made during his ownership of Ayr Mount. John U. Kirkland and his wife Elizabeth “Betsy” Simpson Kirkland had a total of twelve children, six of whom were born during the time this crib was likely made on the property. According to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census Slave Schedules, Kirkland enslaved 29 individuals, using their labor for the mixed-use agricultural operations of Ayr Mount as well as businesses in the nearby town of Hillsborough, including a store and a tannery.