To Wash or Not To Wash

From June 1876 Punch The London Charivari

On washday everything that was soiled had to be washed. Laundry included bedding, nappies, sanitary rags, handkerchiefs, washcloths, napkins and anything else that need cleaned. This meant that hundreds of pieces of laundry might get cleaned in a single week.
Unlike today, washday tended to focus primarily on the clothing that was in direct contact with the skin. This underclothing, especially in the summer months, would become noticeably dirty and smelly. Washing was done more often in the summer then in the winter. According to Virginia Mescher, Author of Laundry and Cleaning Practices in the mid-19^th century:

“Washing clothes was done less frequently than it is done today. The many layers of clothing protected the outermost layers of clothing, and only the ones nearest the skin were changed frequently…It became a status symbol to do large, infrequent washings, since it proclaimed the family could afford a large wardrobe.”

For the most part underclothes were made of material that could be easily boiled and cleaned. A clean item of clothing will last much longer than one that is solid. Underclothes are what protected the outer clothing from the body’s harmful bacteria.

This is not to go to say that outerwear never was washed. It was washed when it needed washed. Advice books of the day strongly advised spot cleaning over washing the entire garment. Washing was hard on the clothes and it took more time and attention.
For example when a dress was to be washed all of the trimmings, such as the hooks & eyes, lace, and sometimes even buttons were taken off so as not to cause rust to the fabric or damage notions themselves. The lace and other trimming would be washed separately before being sewn back on.  One advantage of all this was that at this was a good for an old dress to be updated or repurposed into another garment.

By now it should be plain to see why the majority of those who did the wash preferred spot cleaning and other treatment methods if they could get away with it. It should also be painfully obvious why aprons are important.

A Laundress at the Pump

          Catherine Beecher suggested that as soon as a household’s budget would allow it laundry should be sent out of the home. Others suggested that laundry be done in the home because of the disease that were thought to be spread by public laundries.

           However if the budget would not allow it she suggested it be done by multiple people. Obviously the more hands that were involved the faster the work could be done. Undoubtedly other family members pitched in with carrying the water, hanging the linens, and ironing.

          
             Still this must not have been enough. Throughout the mid-19th century many women, men, and children where commonly employed as laundry workers or laundresses. They either worked in large city laundries, with women making up majority of the labors, or independently. Even families who were not finically stable could afford a laundress as a general day labor as many worked on the barter system rather then be paid in coin.

A laundress or hired woman who “came in” to their employers’ homes tended to be the poorest of the poor. They could not afford any equipment of their own and come around on laundry day to help with the wash. More common was the laundress who did the wash from her own home because it allowed for more freedom and less supervision from the mistress of the house.

 

SOURCES USED

Photographs used are either my own or belong to the public domain.

A full list of sources will be listed after the "Laundry Series" is complete

  

Laundry: The Final Frontier

As a living historian, I get more then my fair share of questions about what life was like “back in the olden days.” The vast majority of the questions I get have to do with everyday life, the most frequent being “Are you hot in that?”

A more constructive question I’m often ask is usually along the lines of “How do you clean your clothes and how often?”  When I first started to portray life in the mid 1800’s I would have replied with something like “Well with strong lye soap and a scrub board of course!”

And why would that not be true? I had seen that very thing portrayed over and over again. In movies and at local museums we’ve all seen it done.  Heck, I even did the laundry like the ladies did way back then! My local museum said that it took most of the day to do but was pretty simple. All you needed was water, a scrub board, a wringer, soap, and in no time you would be washing the wash like a real pioneer lady!

But things changed once I stopped regurgitated what I had been told and started asking questions about what I was doing.

For example, I noticed that using the scrub board “properly” on every item was extremely time consuming, used a lot of soap, and was particularity hard on the clothing. Holes quickly developed, notions were lost, and in no time my knuckles quickly went raw. Combine this with the “strong lye soap” and I was miserable!

The experience, though painful, caused me to ask questions. Did they really scrub every garment? Did laundry soap have to be lye soap? Where did they hang laundry in the winter?

Luckily dear reader, these questions led to research and to some answers that threw everything I thought I knew right out the window.

My next few blog posts will be all about the laundry. The who, what, where, when, and how’s of mid-19^th century laundry practices. We will explore equipment, stain removal, and how to put present a laundry impression that is simple yet true to the period.   

If your planning on following this blog for the next few months remember that it's important to keep an open mind. You may not agree with everything I found but maybe that will inspire you to go on your own adventure.

Remember, research is a lot like going to see the physiologist. Unless you are willing to accept and make positive changes then there is really no point in doing it.