#blueing

White Clothing and Victorian Laundry

Washing clothes in the late 1800s was a laborious process. Most household manuals recommended soaking the clothes overnight first. The next day, clothes would be soaped, boiled or scalded, rinsed, wrung out, mangled, dried, starched, and ironed, often with steps repeating throughout. Some manuals recommended scalding and rinsing up to three times! In order to keep whites white, women of the time came up with a number of stain-removal solutions.

Curatorial and Reading Room Assistant Emma Ricciardi offers a description of laundry practices in the late 1800s and investigates how whites stayed so white. in her latest blog post. Read all about it here: 

http://librarycompany.org/2017/08/28/white-clothing-and-victorian-laundry/

#MorrisMonday

"No blueing required when this soap is used” 

This circa 1880 elephant-shaped trade card for Kirk’s Blue India Soap claims “no blueing required when this soap is used”. Blueing (or, bluing) is the process of adding trace amounts of blue dye while laundering white fabrics. As white fabric tends to yellow over time, the blue dye counters the yellowing to create the illusion of a brighter white. White fabric is often blued during its manufacturing process.