Bathtubs

One of the things I love about working in a Museum is that you get to do research on things that we take for granted. For example: the bathtub. Who really thinks about their bathtub? We don’t…that is unless we need to clean it and even then we’re not thinking about its history. What got me thinking about this is the baby bathtub that we have on display from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection. This bathtub was a gift to Bruce A. Linam. In looking at it, the baby bathtub is a small tub or it could be described as a large bowl. The size is perfect because infants are small and require less space and water than adults do. There is not much history about baby bathtubs specifically but the concept of the bathtub has been around for a long time.

A short history: Bathing back in the Roman times was a combination of a social event, in something like a shallow swimming pool, as well as an act of cleanliness. Later, bathing became more personal with the use of portable chamber pots or washbowls (www.oldhousejournal.com). According to www.bathtubadvisory.com, bathing continued through the Middle Ages, but was replaced shortly after the Renaissance with heavy use of sweat-bathing and perfume because of the belief that water carried diseases through the skin into the body. Bathtubs and sanitation became more of a permanent fixture thanks to indoor plumbing. But in the beginning, as indoor plumbing was a luxury, the bathroom concept was a sign of high status. After World War I when houses became larger, according to www.oldhousejournal.com, bathtubs became a staple of the home and claw-foot tubs became all the rage. Sanitation concerns led to the enclosed bathtubs that we are more familiar with today.

A fake history from The Museum of Hoaxes (www.museumofhoaxes.com): Journalist Henry L. Mencken published an article on December 28, 1917, in New York Evening Mail entitled “A Neglected Anniversary.” In this article he mourned the passing of the 75th anniversary of the invention of the bathtub. He wrote that a man named Adam Thompson first installed a bathtub in Cincinnati on December 20, 1842. Supposedly this new invention created a commotion when papers called it an “epicurean luxury,” “undemocratic,” and “dangerous to health.” He claimed it wasn’t until President Millard Fillmore installed the first bathtub in the White House that bathtubs became acceptable. Everything in Mencken’s article was false, a joke. He wrote later: “My motive was simply to have some harmless fun in war days.” He knew it was more than a joke when he saw his own writings in scholarly papers across the nation and in Europe. In 1926 Mencken printed another article in Chicago Tribune and other papers explaining what he had done and why but the damage had been done. Mencken’s hoax “facts” have been used numerous times since then and can still be seen today.

Who would have thought there would be so much information, whether it be true or false, about a bathtub? Again, this is why I love working in a Museum. Everyday items can have a fascinating story. Come check out the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame and check out the baby bathtub from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection in the South Gallery!