Laundry

Episode 65: "The Most Trying Department of Housekeeping" with Lori Davis

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Transcript:

I feel like I spend half my life doing laundry. I’ll sit down to fold a basket of clothes, it doesn’t look too bad, it’s barely even full. But then I start folding, and folding, and folding, and I realize this is actually like five baskets of clothes, they’re all just miniature. Tiny toddler sized shirts take up hardly any room in the laundry basket but they’re just as hard to fold as an adult sized shirt, harder even. I complain “ugh, I don’t wanna.” My husband really complains. Laundry is the bane of his existence. But honestly, we’ve got it so good. We put the dirty clothes in a machine that’s in our house, press a button and go about our day. Yes, at some point we have to move them to another machine, press another button and then go about our day again while they dry. And then we take them out and fold them or hang them or whatever. That’s doing laundry in middle class America today. But, did you know, laundry wasn’t always that simple. Laundry was a complete nightmare for almost all of history, a nightmare that literally everyone depended on but never talked about. Let’s fix that. 

Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. Today we’re talking about laundry but I promise it won’t be boring. It will be eye opening, perspective shifting. I for one will never complain about doing laundry ever again… I mean, we’ll see, I probably still will. As I mentioned in last week’s episode, when I was researching Ranavalona I came upon a podcast called Her Half of History. It was one of the few sources I could find about her and it was literally the only one that didn’t immediately buy into the hype and throw her under the bus as a bloodthirsty evil tyrant. Lori gave Ranavalona a chance and I was like “I like this girl, I like this podcast,” so I actually reached out to Lori to see if she would join us on History Fix and she was down and here she is. 

[Lori interview]

Lori didn’t go into detail in our interview about what all was spelled out in those 19th century books for housewives about how to do your laundry but she does in her podcast episode about laundry for Her Half of History. She reads an excerpt from a book written by Catherine Beecher who was actually the older sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe. You’ve probably heard of Harriet, she was an abolitionist who wrote the very famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin which really illustrated the unbearable and inhumane living conditions that enslaved people were forced to endure in America. It was incredibly eye opening at a time when people needed to open their eyes. Catherine Beecher, her sister, was an educator and an author and a social activist too, honestly. She championed for equal access to education for women and supported the incorporation of Kindergarten into children’s schooling. She also basically pioneered the concept of physical education, PE, for girls. The Beecher parents should be very very proud of their daughters. Harriet and Catherine were nothing short of complete inspirations. But Catherine also wrote books that included detailed instructions for how to properly do laundry, like Lori mentioned there. Here’s what Catherine instructs in her 1873 book “Ms. Beecher’s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper” quote “First you must gather your materials, namely: plenty of soft water, lye, soda, and borax. . . Two wash-forms are needed; one for the two tubs in which to put the suds, and the other for bluing and starching-tubs. Four tubs, of different sizes, are necessary; also, a large wooden dipper, (as metal is apt to rust;) two or three pails; a grooved washboard; a clothes-line, (sea-grass or horse-hair is best;) a wash-stick to move clothes when boiling, and a wooden fork to take them out. Soap-dishes, made to hook on the tubs, save soap and time. Provide, also, a clothes-bag, in which to boil clothes; an indigo-bag, of double flannel; a starch-strainer, of coarse linen; a bottle of ox-gall for calicoes; a supply of starch, neither sour nor musty; several dozens of clothes-pins, which are cleft sticks, used to fasten clothes on the line; a bottle of dissolved gum-arabic; two clothes-baskets; and a brass or copper kettle, for boiling clothes, as iron is apt to rust.” So that’s just the materials right, that’s just what you need to get started. It’s basically a Hogwarts first year student supply list. Like, certainly indigo-bags, copper kettles, and ox-gall are only sold in Diagon Alley. 

Then she goes on about how to actually do the laundry with these things quote “Assort the clothes, and put those most soiled in soak the night before. Never pour hot water on them, as it sets the dirt. In assorting clothes, put the flannels in one lot, the colored clothes in another, the coarse white ones in a third, and the fine clothes in a fourth lot. Wash the fine clothes in one tub of suds. When clothes are very much soiled, a second suds is needful, turning them wrong side out. Put them in the boiling-bag, and boil them in strong suds for half an hour, and not much more. Move them, while boiling, with the clothes-stick. Take them out of the boiling-bag, and put them into a tub of water, and rub the dirtiest places again, if need be. Throw them into the rinsing-water, and then wring them out, and put them into the bluing-water. Put the articles to be stiffened into a clothes-basket by themselves, and, just before hanging out, dip them in starch, clapping it in, so as to have them equally stiff in all parts. Hang white clothes in the sun, and colored ones (wrong side out) in the shade. Fasten them with clothes-pins. Then wash the coarser white articles in the same manner. Then wash the colored clothes. These must not be soaked, nor have lye or soda put in the water, and they ought not to lie wet long before hanging out, as it injures their colors. Beef’s-gall, one spoonful to two pailfuls of suds, improves calicoes. Lastly, wash the flannels in suds as hot as the hand can bear. Never rub on soap, as this shrinks them in spots. Wring them out of the first suds, and throw them into another tub of hot suds, turning them wrong side out. Then throw them into hot bluing-water. Do not put bluing into suds, as it makes specks in the flannel. Never leave flannels long in water, nor put them in cold or lukewarm water. Before hanging them out, shake and stretch them. Some housekeepers have a close closet, made with slats across the top. On these slats, they put their flannels, when ready to hang out, and then burn brimstone under them, for ten minutes.” end quote. Holy Moly. Like, what? Lori had a similar reaction. 

[Lori interview]

I was so glad Lori brought that up, those old pictures of people just covered in dirt and grime, I come across them quite often when looking for images for certain episodes and it’s always a little startling like “what in the world, somebody wash this poor child” but once you understand what an absolutely enormous job laundry was, how much time it took, how much energy it took, how many supplies you actually needed, it sort of makes sense. I would have the dirtiest kids ever if I had to do all of that to keep them clean. They’re already pretty dirty, especially now that it’s warm outside and we’re playing in the yard like all day. They get real dirty, they just do. But if that’s what it took to clean them, yeah we might just embrace the dirt. And it’s not just me, laundry was the most dreaded chore. Catherine Beecher called it quote “the most trying department of housekeeping.” 

[Lori interview]

Perspective is a really wild thing. We moan and complain even with our miraculous machines that automatically fill with water and wash the clothes for us. We still find reasons to complain. If Catherine Beecher could see a modern washing machine, a dryer, can you even imagine what her reaction would be? But what I love most about the history of laundry is that it exposes the littlest bit, it cracks the facade a tiny bit to expose the history of women and it reveals really how much women have done throughout time to just keep things functioning, to keep the cogs moving. Lori and I kept coming back to, you know, I can’t believe this was a woman’s job, lugging 400 pounds of water from a river or a well or whatever per load and they’re doing multiple loads 3, 4, 5 loads, however many every single Monday. That’s, there are men who would cower at the mere thought of such a task. And there was no honor and glory, no one even paid attention to the fact that it was being done, as long as it got done, as long as they had clean clothes to wear, their good clothes ready to go by Sunday. It was so behind the scenes and it remained so behind the scenes that it’s not something I’ve really ever even thought about. And that’s women’s history that’s Her Half of History. 

Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix. I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. A huge huge thank you to Lori Davis from the Her Half of History Podcast for sharing her knowledge with us today. I will link Lori’s podcast, Her Half of History, in the description. I really think you guys will dig it. You can also find Lori on instagram @herhalfofhistory. And, as always, be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow this podcast on whatever app you’re using to listen, and go ahead and tell a friend or two about it, that’ll make it much easier to get your next fix.  

Information used in this episode was sourced from Lori Davis from Her Half of History Podcast and I’ve linked her episode on laundry in the description if you’d like to check out her sources. I also included an excerpt from Catherine Beecher’s 1873 book “Ms. Beecher’s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper.” That entire book is available through the Library of Congress website and I will link that in the description as well.

Sources:

• Her Half of History "Wash Up On Monday"

• Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper