The information in this episode comes from a book called “Death by Petticoat” by Mary Miley Theobald with The Colonial Williamsburg foundation.
Myth # 1- So many colonial American women died from burns when their long petticoats caught fire that it became the second-most common cause of death, after childbirth. Perhaps the horror of these rare accidents made them memorable and seem more common than they actually were.
Fact-There were some instances in which women died of burns suffered from their skirts or petticoats catching on fire, but early historical death records show that the leading cause of death for women was not burns or childbirth, but disease. Their garments were made of cotton, linen, or wool, which does not easily burst into flame either, but tend to smoulder.
Myth #2- Houses did not have closets in colonial days because people wanted to avoid paying the closet tax.
Fact- Inventories and floor plans show that many early American houses were built with closets. They were typically located on either side of a fireplace in bedrooms and dining rooms and were used for general storage, not for clothing. Taxes varied widely from colony to colony, but research has turned up no examples of a tax on closets. Furthermore, clothes hangers did not’ come into use until after the 1860s. Clothing was usually folded and kept in chests, clothespresses, chests of drawers, or hung on hooks and nails. They did not need much space, as they did not have as much clothing as we do now…even wealthier women on had just a few dresses.
Myth #3- Fire screens were placed between a woman and the fireplace to prevent the heat from melting her wax makeup.
Fact- First, if a woman wanted to wear makeup, she would have had to make it herself. There was no product in stores to buy like we have today. Recipes for skin-care treatments, such as creams which were applied and washed off can be found in household-management books of the period, but none of these used wax as an ingredient.
Second, when historians look through lists of household possessions, they found very few fire screens in the inventories. Fire screens were an expensive accessory and were often decorated with needlework and placed near a fire by men and women to shield them from direct heat.
Myth #4- Nails were so expensive that people used them on their front doors to show off their wealth.
Fact- According to blacksmiths and historians, nails were not that expensive. It was the cheapest doors that had the most nails, and well-made, more expensive doors show no nails.
Myth #5- Beds were shorter back then because people slept sitting up.
Fact- Beds were made one at a time, there was no standard size, and children’s beds were shorter than today’s. Some beds were longer than the ones we have today, and some people may have slept propped up by pillows, but beds were not made shorter. People find it surprising that, when measured, the beds are as long or longer than today’s standard 75-inch double bed.
Myth #6- Americans suffered from widespread lead poisoning due to the lead in their pewter.
Fact- Everyone was exposed to pewter in the form of plates, utensils and drinking vessels. Even those who were wealthy enough to have sterling silver and ceramic dishes, pewter was still used in their kitchen. Pewter is mostly made of tin and though it can contain lead, it does not always. Copper, antimony, brass, zinc, bismuth, or lead can be the secondary metal in pewter. Superior quality pewter contained no lead, but that of a lower quality sometimes did. Settlers would have encountered lead daily through lead-glazed pottery, lead crystal, musket balls, lead paint, and lead solder. With so many sources it is hard to pin down which object with lead in it was to blame. Pewter may have helped to contribute to lead poisoning, but it was not the most significant source.
Myth #7- A man’s suit of clothes cost a year’s wages.
Fact- Clothing was available at a wide range of prices, like our clothing today. Everything was handmade and new clothing could be costly, but there was the option of used clothing that could be bought for very little. As mentioned earlier, even those who were well off only had a few outfits. Women of higher status would, at times, remake their dresses by having them dyed a different colour and attaching new trimmings.
Myth #8- Panes of window glass in old buildings is visibly thicker at the bottom, proving that glass is a viscous liquid that “flows” or sags over time.
Fact- Antique glass was made by hand and craftsmen tried to make individual plates of glass evenly flat, however, visible variation in the thickness was often evident. One early technique involved spinning molten glass to create a flat plate. The plate cooled and was cut to fit a windowpane. The edges could turn out thicker than the middle. If one edge was thicker after it was cut, those who installed the pane generally put that edge down for stability. If glass really did flow over time, we would see more flow in the glass of the ancient Egyptians than that of America, but this is not the case. At one time, a physicist tried to calculate the time required for glass to flow and found that it would move a visible amount at the temperature of 777F, however it would take 800 years. At room temperature, it would take longer than the age of the universe for the glass to flow. If you look close at a piece of antique glass, you may see a faint arc, bubbles, or other imperfections, but this is simply evidence that it was made by hand.
Myth #9- Chairs without arms were designed to accommodate women wearing wide hoop skirts.
Fact- Chairs without arms (usually called side chairs today) first appeared in the 1500s, but sometime during the 1800s, people started calling them “farthingale chairs,” which linked, mistakenly, the chair’s purpose to the wide hoop skirts that were worn by women. Wide hoops did not make it difficult for ladies to sit in armchairs. There are portraits that show Queen Elizabeth I and her sister Mary I sitting on their thrones with their bulky gowns and thrones were nothing more than fancy armchairs.
Myth # 10- In olden days, shoes were made straight, not as rights and lefts, so they could be rotated as we rotate tires and would wear evenly.
Fact- Back in Shakespeare’s time, the wooden forms that shoes were made on changed to straight from left to right. In order to economize, shoemakers would only need one form to make a pair of shoes. Also, the shoes quickly formed to the wearer’s feet and in turn, moulded a little to the left or right, so shoes were NOT rotated for the purpose of wearing evenly. This invention of shoes made straight lasted until around 1800, when they were formed back into right and left.
Myth #11- The most stylish shoes were made of dog skin, hence the expression “puttin’ on the dog.”
Fact- No one used dog skin to make shoes or boots in North America. So where did the phrase “puttin’ on the dog” come from? The expression got started in the middle of the 1800s and it meant “to show off.” The phrases “putting on the ritz” and “cut a swell,” were also sayings meaning the same thing. The earliest known use of the phrase was at Yale University in 1871, where it is said to have been college slang meaning “make a flashy display.” Nothing to do with dog-skin shoes.
Myth #12- Before the days of hospitals, houses had designated birthing rooms.
Fact- Many women returned to their parents’ homes to give birth, especially for a first child. This made it possible for experienced mothers and sisters to assist with deliveries. Women usually give birth at home, and mostly in their own beds.
Myth #13- People did not bathe back then. Or: People bathed once a year. Or: Brides carried bouquets to cover up their body odour.
Fact- Just as today, personal habits varied, but most people washed their hands and face at the least every day. Let us differentiate between “bathe” and “wash.” If we consider bathing to be sitting in a large tub full of hot water, almost no one bathed that way until the invention of indoor plumbing. Early settlers took sponge baths, usually in their bedrooms, usually standing beside their washstands with their pitchers and bowls of water. They also sometimes used small tin tubs with a few inches of warm water. Lugging buckets of water from the well, heating them on the stove, carrying them to the tub, and emptying the tub when finished was challenging work. Sometimes people washed in the kitchen, nearer the stove—less privacy, but less labour.
Myth #14– Quilt designs were secret codes meant to assist escaping slaves through the Underground Railroad.
Fact- The underlying premise is that quilt patterns carried messages to help slaves escape. Some claim that the quilts were maps showing escape routes and others say quilts were made by white members of the Underground Railroad to hang outside houses to send messages. But airing quilts was routine, so how could fugitives tell which quilts were messages and which were simply there due to good housekeeping? There is no agreement about which patterns were used or what they meant. Rarely does a pattern have just one name—a pattern could be called Album in one region and Snowflake in another, which would ruin the code. Several patterns supposedly used by fugitives did not even exist until long after slavery ended. There is no evidence or example of coded quilts. Firsthand accounts from former slaves and from Underground Railroad participants, black and white, tell of many ways that they passed secret messages, but none mentions the use of quilts.
We at Backus-Page House Museum, suggest that you look further into this subject using sources produced by experts in Black History.
Myth #15- Quilters made mistakes on purpose to show their humility.
Fact- Perhaps the idea was started when people noticed an odd placement of a piece of fabric or a change in colour and wondered whether it had been done on purpose. What would you think? On purpose or by accident? One quilt historian went looking for the origins of the “humility block” legend and found that the earliest reference dated to 1949. No sources from the 1800s, such as diaries, letters, or books, mention a practice like this, and no oral tradition could be traced. Ask any quilter, and he or she will tell you that plenty of mistakes are made without even trying.
Myth #16-The “fainting couch” was invented during Victorian times for tightly corseted women to use when they felt faint.
Fact- The flat, daybed piece of furniture has been around since ancient Egypt and Rome, but the people of those empires used daybeds for reclining, not to catch them as they fainted. A daybed was a fashionable piece of furniture found in many Victorian parlours, but it was not designed or reserved for fainting women. It is said that corsets could cause a woman to become light-headed because she had difficulty breathing. Not all Victorian-era women wore corsets however, and not all of them laced them so tightly that they felt short of breath. Those few who did lace them tightly may very well have felt breathless now and then, especially during physical activity, such as dancing. Usually, a brief resting spell would revive them, but on rare occasions, some did faint. And some, no doubt, faked it for dramatic effect.
So, now that we’ve made it to the end of the episode, have you heard any of these Victorian Era myths? Did any of them surprise you? Let us know with the comment feature! Thanks so much for listening to this episode, we hope you enjoyed!