1840 - 1846 Hat Bathtub
date: label: date made
content: 1840 - 1846
name: label: maker
content: Waterman, Nathaniel
notes: label: Description
content: The tub takes its name from its form in the shape of a hat. The patient sat either on the bath’s ledge or on a chair outside the tub with his or her feet and legs in the center of the basin. The Dover Stamping Company, a tinware firm in Boston, Massachusetts, listed this form as such in their 1869 catalog. The spout for emptying the bath water is beneath the ledge.
label: Description
content: We know of Nathaniel Waterman, the tub’s maker, through his membership in the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association and his listings in the Boston City Directories at 85 Cornhill Street from 1842 to 1846. He learned the tinsmith trade at a young age and his firm, the Waterman Kitchen and House Furnishing Wareroom, existed in Boston for over forty years. According to accounts, his store was a “veritable museum of all conceivable household necessities and conveniences.”*
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: *Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. <I>Annals of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association</I>, 1795–1892. (Boston: Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 1892): p. 100.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Susanne G. Swift
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.68.0724
label: catalog number
content: 68.0724
label: accession number
content: 275377
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tub, bath
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron, tinned sheet (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 3/4 in x 40 1/2 in x 37 1/4 in; 22.225 cm x 102.87 cm x 94.615 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/2 in x 40 in x 37 1/2 in; 24.13 cm x 101.6 cm x 95.25 cm