B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 7,1984
Victorian Form Wife Featured
in Farm Show Display
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
A visit to the exhibit by the
Pennsylvania Farm Museum of
Landis Valley will offer a nostalgic
trop for some Farm Show visitors,
and an educational experience for
others.
In a departure from their
customary displays, the museum
staff is featuring the Victorian
farm wife and offering an insight
into the life of a farm wife from
about 1880 to 1910. There will be
readily recognizable tools and
household equipment along with
the “latest” in vacuum cleaners
and washing machines.
Kim Becker, an anthropology
major at Franklin and Marshall,
helped prepare the exhibit as part
of an internship which she served
at thr ' during the fall
A wood stove stood prominently in the farm kitchen and
was used not just for heating, but also for cooking. This stove
was painstakingly cleaned of its rust so it could make an
appearance at the Farm Show.
Turning milk into other dairy products took a lot of time for
the Victorian farm wife and her family. Here is the butter
working table and the butter churn, both of which would have
been used regularly on the farm.
term. Kim says, ‘We wanted to
emphasize how valuable the work
was that the farm wife did. She
was doing basically the equivalent
of what the male was doing.”
Indeed, a quick glance at the
variety of equipment used by the
Victorian farm wife quickly
establishes the wide range of
activities which fell to her to do.
There was not just house work,
which took many hours for the
simplest taks, but there was also
garden lag and often field work as
well. On most farms there was the
added chore of turning milk into
cheese and butter for family
consumption.
Nadine Steinmetz, a curator for
the museum, says, “Things
weren’t nearly as simple and easy
in the good old days as we like to
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Kim Becker poses with the sign she painted to accompany the Farm Museum’s exhibit
at the Farm Show. “The Victorian Farm Wife" will depict many of the items used by farm
wives in their daily chores around the 1900's.
The farm wife’s day started
early, and she rose before her
husband to prepare a hearty
breakfast for him to start his day.
Of course, three hearty meals were
expected, along with canning and
preserving. The cook stove played
a large part in the farm home, and
it will also figure prominently in
the Farm Museum display at the
Farm Show. The stove on display
is a Penn Esther, manufactured in
Reading, about 1880.
Kim proudly relates that she
worked at restoring the stove to its
present condition from a very
rusty one The project took several
days, and Kim says she used very
fine steel wool and turpentine, an
approved museum method of
working on an old cast iron stove.
Kim points out that the stove
would have been used on a regular
basis throughout the year, and
they were mostly kept running
with coal.
Dairy items are also dominant in
the exhibit, reflecting their im
portance in a farm home. There
will be a butter churn and butter
working table, in addition to a
cheese separator, a butter press
and a cheese press. The butter
press is especially interesting,
because it allows a decorative
stamp to be added to the butter
with just the press of a lever.
Washmg the family clothing was
another chore that took a lot of
time in that era, and a washing
display will feature some of the
equipment a farm wife would have
used. On dispaly will be a copper
wash boiler, in which clothes were
acturally boiled to help in the
cleaning process. There will also
be washboards, but there is also a
“washing machine” of an early
variety.
The washing machine is a half
moon tub on legs, with a lever
allowing the user to move the
barrel to produce a sloshing effect
to help clean the clothes. The
machine had to have the water
dipped out, or had to be tipped over
to empty the water. There is also a
wringer on display, and, of course,
a bar of lye soap which was a
necessity.
One of the more interesting
“appliances” Kim found in her
research is a very early vacuum
cleaner. It is a hand powered
upright cleaner, manufactured
around 1900 The instructions for
use are still on the machine, and
one of the more succinct directions
is, “Never pound on machine,”
Nadine says, “It was really a
boost, and would be like any new
gadget.”
Nadine points out, “The work
load did not decrease with ad
vances in time. All that is different
is the technology, which was not
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that advanced. Work time was not
that much diminished.”
Wall displays will include tools
used in the garden such as a
shovel, a grubbing hoe and a root
chopper. There will also be a
carpet beater and a bamboo
broom, and a picture of women
working in that era. Nadine says
the photographs were made from
original glass plates which were in
the possession of the museum.
Of course food preparation took
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Nadine Steinmetz, curator at the Farm Museum,
demonstrates the use of a “modern” hand powered vacuum
cleaner, which took a strong hand to operate.
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a large part of the day, and there is
a walnut gateleg table which holds
a slaw cutter, a wooden tray for
drying and ryestraw baskets.
Another item on display will be a
charcoal steam iron, dating from
about 1880, a step up from the irons
heated on-the stove.
There will be a baby in a high
chair, since child care consumed a
lot of time for a farm wife. The
high chair has no tray, and Nadine
(Turn to Page B 4)
♦ * JM