As you walk into the Carriage House and turn right, you can see the laundry exhibit. It contains an ironing board and irons, a SpinRite ironing machine, and three kinds of washers starting with one that is little more than a wash board and wringer.

Animated View: Washing and Ironing
From left to right: Ironing board and irons, SpinRite, and four washers of various vintages.
(2 images, 2 second delay)

The wooden platform left 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 to the right of the ironing board 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.

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 next 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.)

Second from the right 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.)