Archival Anecdotes: Dirty Laundry

Humans have been facing the drudgery of laundry for as long as we have been donning clothing. It's a miserable chore that seems to drag on, even with machines at hand.

Many of us can say that we've washed clothes by hand for one reason or another. But few of us truly know the work that went into washing the tough and durable clothing of the 19th and early 20th century.

During that time, the washboard was a go-to when it came to getting the laundry clean. The model featured here is a Hackett Diamond washboard owned by Mrs. H.D. Piper.

The traditional washboard was patented in 1833 and is usually constructed with a rectangular wooden frame in which are mounted with a series of ridges or corrugations for the clothing to be rubbed upon. For 19th-century washboards, the ridges were often of wood; by the 20th century, ridges of metal were more common

Even with the advent of the washboard, more primitive tools such as the laundry stick and clothes stomper both remained useful. Both featured in the photo, the clothes stomper belonged to Mrs. Joe Hilbert, and was used to agitate the laundry, effectively loosening the dirt from the fibers. The 2-foot laundry stick was used to lift clothes in and out of the hot water. This particular tool belonged to H.F. Rodenberg and was donated by Lucy Purdy in 1988.

The metal washtub with two handles was donated by Lily and Jerry Tangney.

This mode of washing endured nearly a century. Early in the 20th century, mechanized washing came to the forefront as an efficient method of tending to laundry.

Opposition to the washing machine argued that using a washboard was superior to using older laundry machines, because they save water and heating costs, and are not so hard on the clothing.

Still, advertisers built upon the changing image and priorities of women, in an effort to sell their product. The ad featured at right ran in an April 1920 edition of the New Rockford Transcript.

It reads boldly, "Don't be a Washing Machine- Buy one!"

The Eddy County Museum houses a significant collection of laundry artifacts from the early 20th century, including a laundry wringer that belonged to Bob Hegg, a wide selection of sad irons and an ironing board.

Laundry is indeed a never-ending task, but it also poses an opportunity. The following ad ran in March of 1920. It was titled, "To keep the wolf from the door."

It read, "Mrs. A.C. Olsen desires to announce that, commencing Monday, March 1, she will be prepared to take in family washing, ironing, baking, darning, sewing-in fact, anything along the line of work which she can do at home, where she must of necessity stay to take care of the two babies... Work must be delivered and called for, but in the near future, a delivery boy will be put on the job."