Object Details
maker
unknown
Description
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.
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.
Later in the 19th century, Mary Gay Humphrey in the Woman’s Book 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.
For more information on bathing and bathtubs in the 19th and early 20th centuries, please see the introduction to this online exhibition.
*Lydia M. F. Child, The Family Nurse, (Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 1997; Originally published in Boston by Charles J. Hendee in 1837), 135.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Kenneth E. Jewett
date made
1840 - 1880
ID Number
DL.238049.0086
catalog number
238049.0086
accession number
238049
Object Name
Tub, Bath
tub, bath
Physical Description
tin (overall material)
paint (overall material)
cork (part: stopper material)
iron (part: handle material)
wood (part: handle material)
Measurements
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
overall: 8 in x 50 in x 21 in; 20.32 cm x 127 cm x 53.34 cm
place made
World
Related Publication
Dover Stamping Co., 1869
See more items in
Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
Bathtubs
Family & Social Life
Domestic Furnishings
Data Source
National Museum of American History
used
Bathing
referenced
Portable Bathtubs
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_310734