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  • 1.  Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-07-2015 01:44 PM
    I have a memory fragment of a basement kitchen with long, overhead drying racks that could be raised and lowered for drying sheets on laundry day. Can you all lead me to some examples? Please and thank you! ------------------------------ Sarah Sutton Consultant, LEED-AP Concord MA ------------------------------
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 2.  RE: Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-08-2015 06:43 AM
    Hi Sarah,  Possibly too plutocratic for your purposes, but Biltmore Estate in Ashville still has indor clothes drying racks on view: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/biltmore-techtour/1309

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    Eric Segal PhD
    Education Curator of Academic Programs
    Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art - University of Florida
    Gainesville FL
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 3.  RE: Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-08-2015 09:14 AM
    Totally off your request, but semi on topic -- I got a childhood memory of my mother hanging a clothes line in our basement and using the space next to the heater for clothes drying.  BYW I grew up in New York and sometimes clothes froze on the line outside!

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    Marybeth Tomka
    Curator
    Texas Archeological Research Lab
    University of Texas, Austin
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 4.  RE: Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-08-2015 10:56 AM
    Sarah, are you looking for historic examples or sources for such racks now?

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    Melissa Leventon
    Principal
    San Francisco CA
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 5.  RE: Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-09-2015 10:36 AM

    Sarah:  The Longyear Museum's Mary Baker Eddy Home in Chestnut Hill has a set in the basement. They are not on the normal tour, but they would probably be happy to show them to you.  Contact Pam Partridge at the Longyear Museum.

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    Valarie Kinkade
    Principal
    Museum and Collector Resource
    Concord MA
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 6.  RE: Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-09-2015 08:02 AM

    Some apartments in my building still have those.

    Do you need a photo?  I am sure I can arrange to take a picture.

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    Beth Savage
    New York NY
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    Beth Savage
    New York NY
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 7.  RE: Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-09-2015 08:08 AM

    HI Sarah,

    In England older family and friends used something called the : Sheila's maid or now a Pulley maid. 

    Usually they would hang it in their kitchen so the heat would dry the clothing more quickly. They could hang 

    low or high from the ceiling - and were lovely to look at as well as very functional. If you google the 

    names above you will find sources that still make them. 

    Best, Meg


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    Meg Cohen
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 8.  RE: Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-09-2015 02:10 PM

    My mother talked about reading the newspaper society pages in the Bronx kitchen under the drying clothes.
    When I lived with my grandparents, in another Bronx apartment, drying racks were above the tubs in our apartment & in all the apartments of  all the relatives.

    When I moved into my own Mitchell-Lama Middle-Income Cöop, in 1967, the bathroom had a clothes hamper built into the wall, & above it a wooden rack that fanned out when you opened the cover & lowered it.  It had a pulley to raise it.
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    Sheila Michaels
    New York NY
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 9.  RE: Indoor clothes drying

    Posted 05-09-2015 02:12 PM

    In the 1960s & 1970s all young mothers had a folding rack, about 3' high, extended, for drying diapers & baby clothes.

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    Sheila Michaels
    New York NY
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    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more