What is it?

My last post talked about finding objects in the Benton County Historical Museum's collection that I had never seen before.  Here is another such object which I found appealing in form but puzzling.  How was it used?

Buggy whip rack

The object is a rack for buggy whips. In the photograph below, coachman Scotty Dryden is holding such a whip as he drives the Oswald West family carriage.

 

 

 

Oswald West's family carriage

I can imagine the whip hanging vertically through one of the loops in the rack. For a moment I wondered why someone might need spaces for so many whips.  But, of course, this wasn't hung in an individual’s carriage house or barn but in commercial establishments such as a country store or blacksmith's shop which sold whips. 

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon