Washboard
date: label: date made
content: 1800-1900
notes: label: Description
content: Rectangular washboard with wooden central, horizontally grooved scrubbing surface. Two wooden supports attached to either side. No soap shelf. No marks.
label: Description
content: Before indoor plumbing, household chores such as laundering, cooking, and dishwashing were based around the basic need for water and required the women laboring in the home to haul fresh water into the house and dirty water out of the house. In rural areas, water was obtained from nearby streams and creeks and by the end of the nineteenth century street hydrants provided water for growing urban areas. Municipalities installed water and sewage pipes by the beginning of the twentieth century before becoming heavily populated.
label: Description
content: The work of laundering for a household was largely performed by the women of the household. Well-to-do and middle-class people of the nineteenth century also had the option of arranging for someone else to do their laundry, either in their own home or the home of the laundress. Basic tools for this labor included objects such as a clothing iron for pressing or fluting fabrics and washtubs, wash sticks, and washboards for cleaning household textiles. The work of washing clothing and linens provided a financial opportunity for some women within the domestic sphere.
place: label: place made
content: United States
topic: label: Subject
content: Labor
label: Subject
content: Household Tools and Equipment
label: Subject
content: Cleaning
label: Subject
content: Women
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
label: Exhibition
content: Within These Walls
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Leslie M. Acree
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.0207
label: catalog number
content: 60.0207
label: accession number
content: 139258
objectType: label: Object Name
content: washboard
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)