1840 - 1880 Full-size Adult (Plunge) Bathtub
date: label: date made
content: 1840 - 1880
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: Until the mid–19th century, the application of soap in the bath was uncommon. Most soap, made from tallow, was specifically for washing of clothes. Only the wealthy had access to the imported, specially wrapped, and expensive perfumed toilet soaps.
label: Description
content: Occasionally hemlock branches and herbs such as tansy, wormwood, and chamomile were steeped in a vapor or foot bath to assist a cure, rather than to scent or cleanse the bath. The bather lay or sat, wrapped in blankets, on strong sticks of wood set across a large tub of scalding hot water and herbs.* This tub is the largest of the portable bathtubs in the collection and could have been used for such a purpose.
label: Description
content: Later in the 19th century, Mary Gay Humphrey in the <I>Woman’s Book</I> recommended bran, oat, or almond meal as accompaniments to the bath. If one had greasy skin, she suggested adding borax or ammonia to the water.
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: *Lydia M. F. Child, <I>The Family Nurse</I>, (Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 1997; Originally published in Boston by Charles J. Hendee in 1837), 135.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: World
topic: label: used
content: Bathing
label: referenced
content: Portable Bathtubs
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Bathtubs
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content: Family & Social Life
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Dover Stamping Co., 1869
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Kenneth E. Jewett
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.238049.0086
label: catalog number
content: 238049.0086
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: paint (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cork (part: stopper material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (part: handle material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (part: handle material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 3/4 in x 50 3/8 in x 20 3/4 in; 19.685 cm x 127.9525 cm x 52.705 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 in x 50 in x 21 in; 20.32 cm x 127 cm x 53.34 cm