1860 - 1880 Child's Bathtub
date: label: date made
content: 1860-1880
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: This tub is similar in shape and size to those advertised for a child’s use in the 1869 Dover Stamping Company’s catalog. Mid to later–19th century advice books encouraged more frequent bathing for children.
label: Description
content: Julia McNair Wright’s 1879 <I>Complete Home: An Encyclopaedia of Domestic Life and Affairs</I> recommended “If you want your child to be vigorous in play and exercise, give it an abundance of baths: bathe it every day, using warm or cold water—never hot, never freezing, but warm or cold water as best agrees with your child’s constitution.”* Parents likely bathed their children in the kitchen near the warmth of the fire and near a ready source of heated water. The Saturday night bath became a ritual in many households.
label: Description
content: For more information on bathing and bathtubs in the 19th and early 20th centuries, please see the introduction to this online exhibition.
label: Description
content: *Julia McNair Wright, <I>Complete Home: An Encyclopaedia of Domestic Life and Affairs</I>, (Philadelphia, Pa.: J. C. McCurdy & Co., [1879]), 136.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: World
topic: label: used
content: Bathing
label: referenced
content: Portable Bathtubs
label: Subject
content: Children
label: Subject
content: Personal Hygiene
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Bathtubs
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Domestic Furnishings
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Dover Stamping Co., 1869
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Kenneth E. Jewett
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.238049.0087
label: catalog number
content: 238049.0087
label: accession number
content: 238049
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Tub, Bath
label: Object Name
content: tub, bath
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: tin (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 31.5 cm x 87.5 cm x 60.5 cm; 12 3/8 in x 34 7/16 in x 23 13/16 in