washing with soap

[netnet]

In answer to question "What did folks in the 19th century use for shampoo and deoderant ?"

"Basically the Christian Church frowned on bathing for fourteen hundred years. The Romans did it, and therefore, it had to be sinful. Lye soap was used for clothing. Bodies and dishes were not washed with soap. They might not be washed at all. Perfume was used to mask smells, but you put it on you so you did not smell your neighbor. They thought clean clothing kept the body clean....what was available in the back country was lard and lye. The problem was tradition. Until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, no one thought of doing it differently. So, they sluiced off in the creek and called it clean."

Really??!! I had already replied they did use soap and am looking for the advertisements and diary entries.

[E L Watkins-Morris]

Just for fun since we're all reading it anyway...
http://historymyths.wordpress.com/?s=BATHING

[anne foster]

I heard a similar variant this weekend at our historic house by a parent to a child:  "They didn't wash their hair.  Their hair was really dirty, because they never washed it, so they had to wear bonnets all the time to cover it up" (!)

This was the follower to an earlier "look how small the beds were-people were shorter back then" from a different, I think, parent to a child (Note: our house is interpreted to 1890s--I sleep in a bed older than that!)

Since I was in another room I couldn't respond.  But what would have been the best way to do so if they had been nearby?

[Miss Lisa]

Hi, something I heard on the. BBC recently (so it MUST be true) was that peoplw, until the late c19th, used to sleep sitting up, and thats why beds were shorter. Many c16 -18 pics show people sitting up in bed, so - is there any truth in this? I don't know.....

Miss Lisa

[Elaine Kessinger]

It's a load of hooey.

See her myth number eight: http://historymyths.wordpress.com/2010/06/19/myth-8-beds-were-shorter-back-then-because-people-were-shorter/

[Donna Rowan]

Just out of curiosity I just went and measured my Art Nouveau- turn of the century, bed, headboard to foot board. 6foot 6in. Not what I'd call short.

[Mother Dean]

From Peterson's 1859

[anne foster]

Since the first post, I'd been pondering the story that Napoleon wrote to Josephine and asked her NOT to wash for several days since he would be returning.  In searching to determine if it was myth or not (not positive yet), I found out there's a history of cleanliness: The Dirt on Clean by Katherine Ashenburg.  Here's a short excerpt and interview with the author on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16305411

[Mother Dean]

It doesn't answer the question for me but here is an interesting piece called THE USE OF FREQUENT BATHING
http://books.google.com/books?id=qfUTAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA218&ots=RB8sXcr5kl&dq=food%20%22social%20parties%22&pg=PA264#v=onepage&q=food%20%22social%20parties%22&f=false

The only part that really gives me anything is this, "The morning is the best time for bathing, when the skin is in a fine state of warmth. The whole operation need not occupy more than ten or fifteen minutes, and can be done with no extra materials but those commonly used, but care should be taken to prevent chills."

[hanktrent]

"A Scrub," W. Hunt, 1840 England


Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[vmescher]

Hi, something I heard on the. BBC recently (so it MUST be true) was that peoplw, until the late c19th, used to sleep sitting up, and thats why beds were shorter. Many c16 -18 pics show people sitting up in bed, so - is there any truth in this? I don't know.....

Miss Lisa

Lisa,

I know a great many beds were just a long as the ones today or even longer.  Beds were often custom made and it would seem reasonable that the bed would be made to fit the person. 

I have my great-grandparents from the 1880s; the headboard is 7 feet tall and the footboard is 4 feet tall but the length was originally 6 inches too short for a regular double bed mattress ( believe that my great-grandfather was fairly tall).  There are holes where bolster clips were inserted and the bolster pillows were large and fluffy.  When my father refinished the bed he lengthened it so a modern double bed mattress  would fit in (just barely).  I would have like to have had it widened and lengthened for Mike and I to use but since it is so tall it would stress the bed.  As is is not, when slats were just used, the bed tended to collapse so my father wired the frame with turn buckles so that he could tighten the sides without injuring the bed. 

I know this is just one instance of people half sitting up in bed while sleeping but if there some doing it, sleeping like this may have been done my more people. 

[Sue Leurgans]

I know this is just one instance of people half sitting up in bed while sleeping but if there some doing it, sleeping like this may have been done my more people. 

With working in a Nursing Home, people with "lung issues"  tend to breathe easier sleeping on an angle.  This makes me wonder, about the reason that some people were sleeping on an angle and if air quality would have anything to do with the need to sleep inclined.    Huh?  Interesting. 

[mmescher]

Virginia didn't mention it in her post where she addressed bed length but she has written a book entitled Powdered, Painted, and Perfumed that addresses cosmetics but also has sections on Cleanliness and Soap and Hair Treatment and Coloring among a multitude of other related topics. 

I would like to know the source of that quote that was posted (with an comment that indicating a raised eyebrow) stating people didn't bathe, use soap, etc.   We had not been on the forum for a while.  Was that from an earlier post that dropped off the radar?

Michael Mescher

[netnet]

It was from another forum.

[vmescher]

I know this is just one instance of people half sitting up in bed while sleeping but if there some doing it, sleeping like this may have been done my more people. 

With working in a Nursing Home, people with "lung issues"  tend to breathe easier sleeping on an angle.  This makes me wonder, about the reason that some people were sleeping on an angle and if air quality would have anything to do with the need to sleep inclined.    Huh?  Interesting. 

I don't think that my great-grandfather had lung issues since my grandmother was the oldest of nine children and she was born on this bed as were the rest of her siblings. 

We also have a spool bed from the same side of the family and it was also short.  We now use longer bed rails so that it can be used as a twin size bed.  When we got the bed, the original homemade mattress was with it.   

Again, I am not saying that all people slept propped up but these are two instances where the beds were short for no apparent reasons other than they were made for regular to tall height people.  We have a recliner sofa and there have been many times I have slept on the recliner part of the sofa, if guests are here and I have a full house.  It is about the same angle as one would expect using a bolster on a bed.  Granted I have used it when I have had a bad cold and needed the extra lift to be more comfortable but I don't think the shorter beds were used only for people with lung problems.