Banishing Washday: Home Laundry

Abstract

Mrs. Blackstone, wife of American merchant William, had a surprise birthday present in 1874—a washing machine.¹ It consisted of a wooden tub, in which was a flat piece of wood with six small pegs. The dirty clothes were hung on the pegs and the board manually swished to and fro in hot soapy water. She was very pleased with it, as it decreased the hard work of clothes washing, one of the worst tasks for the housewife. Though crude, the device was sufficiently attractive for the neighbors to want one too, and led to Blackstone making them commercially.

The washing machine had more to do with women’s liberation than the birth control pill or their right to work.

L’Ossovatore Romano, the newspaper of the Vatican