1880 - 1900 The Closet Folding Bathtub
date: label: date made
content: 1880-1900
name: label: manufacturer
content: Mosely Folding Bath Co.
notes: label: Description
content: With daily bathing becoming more accepted by the 1880s, many attempted to develop innovative ways to heat bath water and to incorporate the portable bathtub within a room setting. The Mosely Folding Bath Company advertised a folding bath in the 1895 <I>Montgomery Ward Catalog</I>. This tub, disguised as a mirrored wardrobe, folded down and out of its wood casing into the room, revealing the heater above.
label: Description
content: This was similar to Bruschke & Ricke’s combined sofa and bathtub of the same period. The sofa’s bolster concealed a water tank and heater, while the seat unfolded to reveal a bathtub. Often, large rubber aprons protected the wood or carpeted floor. Accounts of igniting sofas and burned bathers dampened the product’s appeal. Since neither bathtub attached to plumbing nor pipes, used bath water drained into a basin and then required emptying.
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.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: used
content: Bathing
label: referenced
content: Portable Bathtubs
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: Mechanization Takes Command, a Contribution to Anonymous History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Crane Co.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1977.1217.13
label: catalog number
content: 1977.1217.13
label: accession number
content: 1977.1217
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Tub, Bath
label: Object Name
content: tub, bath
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: tin (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 24 in x 62 in x 26 in; 60.96 cm x 157.48 cm x 66.04 cm