This Carriage House exhibit includes a series of artifacts used for doing laundry... the hard way.

Animated View: Washing and Ironing
Over time, scrub boards and hand wringers were exchanged for electric washing machines and ironers. (3 images, 5 second delay)

On the left is a tub, washboard, and bar of soap used to wash clothes entirely by hand. The hand crank wringer was used to extract most of the water before clothes were hung on a line to dry. (This is from the Eldred Gilbert Collection.)

The second machine is an early electric washer with cup-shaped paddles that could twist back and forth and move up and down. This automated the washing part of the process. (This machine was donated by Max McArthur.)

The third machine was originally a gas-powered washing machine that was converted to electricity. This machine might have been purchased at the Company Store. (This machine was donated by Phil and Gay Peterson.)

The wooden platform second from the right is an ironing board with electric irons (donated by Gene Rackow). Before the days of wrinkle-free clothing, a hot iron and an ironing board were used to remove wrinkles from clothing.

The machine on the far right is called a Spin Rite. It was a mechanized ironing board that used a large, soft roller like a rotating ironing board that pressed against a hot, concave metal surface that flattened sheets and the like as they were fed through the machine.