Wilma Keller, a Kansas State University home-economics major in 1920, bought the Great Western 901B parlor stove with her first teaching stipend—$42 cash, hauled from Leavenworth in a Model T pickup. She set it in the corner of the university’s practice cottage, where she demonstrated “modern fuel efficiency” to wide-eyed freshmen, the white porcelain gleaming under gaslight while the emblem caught every eye.

When Wilma retired in 1955, she donated the stove to the department with a brass plaque: For the girls who will cook tomorrow. It warmed the demo kitchen until 1987, then sat in storage until her granddaughter rescued it.

Light Wilma now and the mica still glows like a lecture hall lantern. In the hiss you hear her voice: “Measure twice, burn once.”