Another two weeks and another deadline for my historical newspaper article came last week. Here’s what will appear tomorrow. This time I chose to write on hygiene; it was inspired by a new donation to the museum: an old-fashioned galvanized tin bathtub. Doesn’t look comfy at all! This was fun to research and write. Hope you enjoy it.
Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water!
Ever wonder where the phrase: Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! really came from? Even though it has its origins in Germany in the early 1600s, it certainly applies to life in the US in the mid-nineteenth century, before the days of indoor plumbing. Baths were rare–rarer even in winter–and in summer if you were really dirty (smelly wasn’t a reason to bathe), a nearby lake or river would have to do, if there was one. To understand attitudes about bathing and hygiene held by almost everyone, it may help to put the concept of personal cleanliness in perspective. From the Middle Ages to the late 1700s, most physicians and clergy of Protestant and Roman Catholic churches believed bathing was unhealthy, both physically and spiritually, especially leading to promiscuous behavior in men and women.
As part of hygiene lore, we probably all have heard of the typical Saturday night bath ritual where water would be hauled from the stream or hand pump outside, if your family was lucky enough to have one, heated on the wood-burning stove, and poured into the galvanized tin bath tub placed in front of the fire for warmth. The oldest male would have the honor of bathing first, followed by other males in descending age order, then the females, finishing up with the youngest children. By the time a large family would be finished, one could easily imagine losing the baby in what would be dirty, cold water! Drying off was another challenge. Thick towels known and used for several centuries by the Turks finally made their way to England in the 1840s, but only the wealthy could afford them. Americans would have to wait longer to be introduced to them, so for the pioneer family, rough linen or cotton rags would be used to wipe off after a bath. Of course, air drying in front of the fireplace was always an option.
Prior to the Civil War, most soap was made by the housewife and consisted of lye and animal fat. Most often, soaps were used for laundry, not personal cleaning purposes. The occasional bath, therefore, was nothing more than a rinse-off of surface grime. It certainly wasn’t a comfortable experience, as the metal bathtub was often no more than a horses’ water trough, repurposed. Having a tin tub specifically for bathing was a real luxury. Basically they came in two shapes: the small round one with a high side to support the back and the deluxe model where an tall man could actually stretch his legs out. (It eerily resembles a coffin.) In the smaller version, an adult had to either crouch or dangle his or her legs over the side. For men this could be managed more easily than for women, whose sense if modesty would prevail. Most women would “bathe” standing up, probably wearing a cotton smock, while another woman would pour water over them. On the pioneer treks across the country in the late 1840s, it takes little imagination to realize unless the route took the wagons or carts past a lake or river, no one bathed.
The height of bathing luxury: a galvanized tin bathtub
This changed in the 1870s and 1880s, when companies such as Woodbury’s, Procter & Gamble, Pears, and B.T. Babbit began to mass produce soap. The newly established soap makers were determined to turn their products into national habits. The many women’s magazines that were introduced in the late nineteenth century provided soap manufacturers with a perfect vehicle. Several groups and institutions contributed to this transformation. The work of women’s clubs, settlement workers, and health educators facilitated increased awareness of hygiene and the importance of personal grooming. One result of this work was a dramatic growth in indoor plumbing. Reinforcing and in many ways leading this transformation, was the mass production of good quality soap at affordable prices.
Concepts of personal hygiene underwent a dramatic change in the United States between 1875 and 1940 and during this relatively short period, Americans changed from a group of reluctant bathers–who rarely if ever used soap for personal hygiene–to a nation in love with suds and lavishly outfitted bathrooms.
At the Syracuse Museum we have a galvanized round tin bathtub! Come see what baths used to be like. Our summer hours are Tuesday-Thursday from 2-5 and by appointment (801-825-3633). The museum is located on 1700 South (Antelope Drive) just before 2000 West. Stop by and visit us!
