The pen wiper displayed in the exhibition is based on a sample piece given to the museum in 1929 by a close friend of the Ulyanovs, Vera Kashkadamova, a teacher from Siberia. She was a member of the restoration committee of the Ulyanovs’ house and helped restore the historic look of its interiors.

Vera Kashkadamova was a friend of Ilya Ulyanov; she often consulted with him on business matters; she helped Maria Ulyanova Sr. after her husband’s death, and after her son, Alexander had been executed. Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova said about Kashkadamova:

A pen wiper is a special device used to wipe quills and pens to get rid of excessive ink. From the 4th century until the middle of the 19th century, birds’ feathers were used to write in Europe. As they got dirty very often and were rather fragile, pen wipers were made as open containers from metal, glass, crystal, or wood with horsehair or bristle brush glued inside.

When metal pens that scratched the paper when writing were introduced, simpler and cheaper pen wipers were made of leather, cloth, fur, plant fibers, and other materials. They were especially popular in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Such pen wipers not only scraped the dried ink but also small pieces of paper and trash.

The pen wiper from the collection is made of fabric circles of different colors, stacked and stitched in the middle. On the upper circle a leaf is embroidered with red and white threads. Such pen wipers were used by pupils of elementary public schools and schools in the second half of the 19th century. Pen wipers were often made by themselves, for example, at arts and crafts class or bought in a store. Standard factory-made pen wipers were around 5–6 centimeters in diameter. They were made of felt and thick cloth, which were placed between two pieces of leather and fastened with a metal rivet.