Thistle Dew Books

Victorian Era Laundry & Housekeeping

By: Victoria Rumble ©

Catherine Beecher’s interests included all branches of home economics – the term for which, in her day was, domestic economy. This ranged from cooking and recipes to laundry and just about everything in between.

She wrote that, “the most trying department of housekeeping”, was laundry and provided instructions on the best way to accomplish the task whether the laundress was the woman of the house or a housekeeper under her direction.

Decreasing the need for laundering of a ladies’ wardrobe was of paramount interest in a day when fine fabrics didn’t always conform to the crude attempts at laundering them and when dyes were often unstable resulting in loss of color with repeated washings. White collars and cuffs were worn by most women for this reason.

Some ladies economize time and labor by wearing three-cornered lace articles for the neck, trimmed with imitation Valenciennes lace, wash them in their wash-bowl, whiten in soap-suds in a tumbler or bowl in their window, stiffen with gum-arabic, and after stretching, press under weights between clean papers. This is a happy contrivance when on a journey or without servants. Those who wish to save all needless labor in washes should have under-garments and night-gowns made in sack forms or other fashions that save in both material and labor. They also should omit ruffles and other trimmings that increase the labor of ironing.

The preferred articles involved in laundry included soft water and borax since it was safer than soda which tended to yellow whites and damage their texture. Half an ounce of borax was sufficient per washing. The borax could be made into the soap eliminating the step of adding it separately.

To a pound of bar-soap, cut in small pieces, put a quart of hot water and an ounce of powdered borax. Heat and mix, but do not boil, cool and cut into cakes and use like hard soap. Soak the white clothes in a suds made of this soap over night, and it saves much rubbing.

The paraphernalia of laundry was quite extensive. Miss Beecher recommended two wash-forms (one for the two tubs in which to put the suds, and the other for bluing and starching-tubs), four tubs of different sizes, a large wooden dipper, two or three pails [not galvanized tin]; a grooved washboard, a clothes-line (sea-grass or horse-hair preferably), a wash-stick to move clothes when boiling, a wooden fork to take them out, a clothes-bag in which to boil clothes, an indigo-bag of double flannel (for bluing), a starch-strainer of coarse linen, a bottle of ox-gall for calicoes; a supply of starch which hadn’t begun to sour or grow musty, clothes-pins of the cleft stick variety, gum-arabic, two clothes-baskets, and a brass or copper kettle for boiling clothes (iron was often used, but tended to rust).

Ox-gall was obtained by sending a bottle to the butcher who emptied gall-bladders into it until filled.

The dirtiest items were set to soak the night before and they often required two tubs of suds to remove stubborn dirt. The laundress was not to pour boiling water on these items as it tended to set the stains. They were turned inside out for the second scrubbing and then put into the boiling bag to be boiled for up to 30 minutes. Any stubborn stains were given a final scrubbing before being put into the rinse water. After rinsing they were wrung out and put into the bluing water.

Regardless of fabric the soap was not rubbed directly onto the clothing as it was thought to shrink the fabric in those areas.

Bluing was not bleach but it did help to whiten laundry and remove the yellow residue often left behind after contact with the soap. It was made from several different compounds over the years. Bluing was never used with the soapy water and care was taken to place it into a bluing bag before adding it to the rinse water to prevent particles from flaking off and adhering to the clothing.

When sorting laundry the items were separated with flannels together, colored clothes together, coarse white ones together, and fine clothes kept to themselves.

Any articles that needed to be starched were dipped into the starch solution before hanging on the line, “clapping it in so as to have them equally stiff in all parts”. The starch was made by adding four tablespoons of starch to the same quantity of water, stirring until any lumps were dissolved, and then adding half a cup of cold water. The solution was then poured into a quart of boiling water along with a piece of spermaceti or a lump of sugar or salt the size of a hazelnut. It was then strained and a “very little” bluing added.

White clothes were hung in the sun to benefit from the whitening rays from the sun, and colored clothes were hung in the shade to protect them from fading.

Starch was sometimes made from grated potatoes in the approximate amount of eight peeled and grated potatoes to one gallon of water. The potato pulp was removed and discarded after the starch had been imparted to the water.

Tedious care was taken not to fade colored clothes. They weren’t soaked and never washed with lye or soda which was often used to soften hard water. Beef’s gall was used on calicoes to preserve the colors.

Calicoes were washed in cool water and the water was to be changed if it appeared dingy so the light parts did not look dirty. Dark colored calicoes were starched using starch made with coffee water, “to prevent any whitish appearance”. Miss Beecher instructed not to allow calicoes to freeze on the line.

Though soap and lye could be purchased, Miss Beecher provided instructions in obtaining lye by pouring water through a barrel of ashes into the 1870’s. Holes were drilled in the bottom of the barrel and the bottom lined with hay before putting in the ashes and as the water ran through the ashes concentrated lye dripped from the holes. The strength of the lye was correct when an egg floated in the solution with a space of only about the size of a ten cent piece showing above the water. If the egg rose higher the lye solution was diluted with fresh water, and if it did not rise high enough the lye was too weak and the weak lye solution was poured through the ashes again with more added if need be.

To make soft soap to this lye solution was added melted fat and drippings in the quantities of one pail of lye to three pounds of fat. The whole was boiled steadily throughout the day until it became ropy. The soap was finished when a small amount was cooled and had the consistency of jelly. It was then moved to a cool area and stirred often. Another method was the cold process whereby 30 pounds of grease was put into a barrel and four pails of strong lye stirred in. More lye was added until the barrel was full and the soap appeared to be, “right”.

When ready for ironing the laundress needed an ironing board or a woolen blanket covered with a linen or cotton sheet in its place, a large fire, and a sheet of iron or an iron spider on which to heat the irons. When heated in this fashion rarely did the irons transfer smoke and black spots onto the clothes. Irons that did become smoked were wiped with beeswax to remove it. It was recommended using three irons per person so that as one was used and cooled there was always a hot one ready to take its place.

Miss Beecher’s board on which to iron frock-skirts and large items was five feet long by two feet wide at one end, tapered to one foot and three inches wide on the other end. A bosom-board approximately a foot and a half long by nine inches wide reduced the difficulties of ironing shirts.

If the lady of the house will provide all these articles, see that the fires are properly made, the ironing-sheets evenly put on and properly pinned, the clothes-frames dusted, and all articles kept in their places, she will do much toward securing good ironing.

Articles of clothing were separated for ironing as they had been for washing, sprinkled with clean water, rolled up right side out, and ironed before colors had time to fade one article to another.

By the time the laundry was washed and dried it was often the following day before ironing began. Many sources advised not cooking strong-smelling foods such as boiled cabbage on wash day as the smell might easily be infused into the newly laundered clothes, and wash day bills of fare were often whatever was left over from the day before, enough having been prepared to last through two days.

Washboards underwent several changes throughout the century, those from the latter part of the 18^th century and early 19^th century being all wooden models, with wooden-framed brass, tin, or glass models following. Clothes sticks were still being patented into the reconstruction era.

Soldiers’ patience and health were sorely tried from lack of clean clothing, and most took the opportunity for remedying this situation when possible. As seen in the following account of soldiers in Richmond many were responsible for their own cleanliness despite their varying amount of knowledge with regard to laundry practices.

To nearly all, the muddy banks of some Virginia stream would be not only tub but wash-board, and, half kneeling, half sitting, they would for hours rub and scrub at a stubborn subject, rendered more intractable by their inadequate materials. Yet all managed to wear clean clothes, and have a stock on hand for an emergency…To personal cleanliness the troops were quite attentive, the lack of large streams interfering very slightly with the regularity of their ablutions. Every stream of any size was always filled with swimmers, and little brooks would be constantly lined with bathers. Every man in the army washed his own clothes, the Governmental provision for “two washerwomen to each company” not appearing to apply to the Army of the Potomac. Of course there was some good washing done, and a great deal of very bad; but the strenuous efforts of all to learn the mystic art of combining soap-suds and friction in such proportions as to extract dirt deserved the highest commendation.

Bibliography:

The Siege of Richmond: a Narrative of the Military Operations of Major-General George B. McClellan during May and June 1862. Cook, Joel. Philadelphia. 1862.

Miss Beecher’s housekeeper and healthkeeper: Containing FiveHundred Recipes for Economical and Healthful Cooking: also, Many Directions for Securing Health and Happiness. Beecher, Catherine. New York. 1873 edition.

Various period cookery books containing chapters on laundry from 1800 through 1870.