THE EVOLUTION OF HOME APPLIANCES IN THE US:
Refrigerators, Kitchen Stoves, Washing Machines, and Clothes Dryers
This site examines the types of home appliances in use in the U.S. from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Because of the wealth of information on this topic, this site is focused on three major appliances--refrigerators, kitchen stoves, and washing machines--with some information about clothes dryers, as well.
Household technology and housework are an important aspect of the cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth century America. Housework was the major activity of roughly half the population for many decades. "It was the individual job done by more people than any other” (Strasser, 1982, p. xiii). Studying the history of technology allows us to understand the physical constraints under which people lived (Cowan 1983, p. 19). Those constraints changed considerably with the "massive technological upgrading" in U.S. households in the past 150 years (Witt's Preface to Woersdorfer, 2017, p. i). By 1950, the typical American housewife had the productivity that a staff of 3 to 4 could produce in 1850. By 1960, material conditions, even for the poor, were luxurious compared with standards in 1910 or 1930 (Cowan, 1983, pp. 100, 194).
Published: July 30, 2017
Household technology and housework are an important aspect of the cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth century America. Housework was the major activity of roughly half the population for many decades. "It was the individual job done by more people than any other” (Strasser, 1982, p. xiii). Studying the history of technology allows us to understand the physical constraints under which people lived (Cowan 1983, p. 19). Those constraints changed considerably with the "massive technological upgrading" in U.S. households in the past 150 years (Witt's Preface to Woersdorfer, 2017, p. i). By 1950, the typical American housewife had the productivity that a staff of 3 to 4 could produce in 1850. By 1960, material conditions, even for the poor, were luxurious compared with standards in 1910 or 1930 (Cowan, 1983, pp. 100, 194).
Published: July 30, 2017