“THINGS GIRLS LIKE TO DO…” (1917)
Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes.
The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations.
Do you know the history of YOUR house?
********************************************************************************************************************************
“In a kitchen where there is no sink, the substitute should be a steady table.”
“Try to clean only as much each day as can be can be put back into habitable order by the time the men of the household come home.”
“I cannot vouch for Plaster of Paris, but I can for corn meal and flour, for with it I once successfully cleaned a white kitten.”
Such are some of the excepts of “Things Girls Like to Do,” a manual on domestic work for the young lady of 1917, which today is a window into the maintenance of a household 100 years in the past.
The world of domesticity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was changing rapidly, as indoor plumbing came into being and electricity introduced into the home. And so the “women’s work” of the household necessitated convenient instruction for girls who would some day take on the sole responsibility of “keeping house.”
“Things Girls Like to Do” was that little primer for that period.
Of more interest today to those maintaining historic homes, it gives loads of specific insight into how today’s old houses were initially kept up.
From the use of burnt pine ash for polishing copper, to the extensive use of calcimine as a wall covering, it is a little goldmine of historic domesticity.
Amongst our favorites is the section on the importance of cleaning the icebox and keeping it smelling sweet:
“(O)ne or two pieces of charcoal wrapped in gauze and laid in the corners will help.”
This all makes us think that the further we get from the hands-on mechanical nature of such chores, and the closer we get to all of this work being done by machines, the quicker we forget or lose all such knowledge.
We are becoming drones – albeit, very, very efficient ones.
———————————————————————————————————————–
Brownstone Detectives is an historic property research agency. Our mission is to document and save the histories of our clients’ homes. From our research, we produce our celebrated House History Books and House History Reports. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
