Subject: bed length


> issue. First, I remember distinctly going through a historic house museum
> and the bed being about 4.5 ft long.

But see, you remember this because it was NOT typical - it struck you that
it was UNUSUAL. So from this, we can now hypothesize that in the late 19th
century, in the South, at least one family had a very short bed made for
health reasons. We're narrowing it down. But again, to extend this to all
the "theys" in all of history....

  >These beds were factory
> made, not handmade, so some standardization would have had to occur to
> achieve the necessary cost efficiency to make them widely available (which
> they were).

So what were these standard sizes, and how have they changed?
>
> Now, I am not saying that EVERY 19th century bed was abnormally short, but
> there were some.

Yes, of course, but there's that standardization point.... not all people
were abnormally tall, but some were, and their beds were larger... and for
the many who were shorter, their beds could be smaller to conserve space. So
what we might find is fewer small people sleeping in big beds.

And, I'd hypothesize, a very important factor is a much different sense of
personal space, of the room required for living - we know that households
were larger, people shared beds, people had less personal privacy and space
(a generalization, but oh well)... they'd accept levels of crowding that
we'd find intolerable.

> Also, since MANY people sleep
> on a king size bed, a standard size bed DOES look comparatively shorter.

Yes, this is the point I was making before....

> Another thing is that feather pillows are exceedingly cheap if you have
> chickens in your front yard.

Good point - though not everyone did. The classic cornhusks used for bedding
in rural areas, the lack of material comforts available to slaves and
servants, the problems finding cheap feathers in urban areas....

Are there any curators of decorative arts/furniture experts on this list?
Help us out here!

Carol Ely
Museum Consultant, Louisville

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).