H70.142.54

• california gold rush

Flatiron. Description: Cast flatiron for smoothing clothes. From the History Information Station: Object: Cast iron flatiron with iron handle. Marked "6," which means it weighs six pounds. It was heated on the stove, and women learned to tell how hot it was by touching it or spitting on it. The bottom was usually rubbed with beeswax before each use to make it slide more easily. History: Flatirons were quite heavy, and flattened wrinkles as much with weight as with heat. Usually people owned at least two irons so they could use one while the other was heating. Some housewives had a variety of ironing boards of different shapes, but others, especially out on the Western frontier, did their ironing on a towel spread out on the kitchen table. Since Monday was usually washday, Tuesday was ironing-day--and ironing often took all day, since practically every piece of laundry was ironed.

Used: ironing ~ clothing | Household