Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Baths and Bathing

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Baths
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
circa 1835-1940
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.76 Cubic feet
consisting of 1.5 boxes, 1 folder, 2 oversize folders, plus digital images of some collection material.
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Baths and Bathing forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Materials relate to both bathhouses located in the United States and bathing related objects produced in the United States. Items originate from the manufacturers of showers, bathtubs, and other early forms of home bathing fixtures. In addition, swim wear and bathhouses are also integrated into this collection. The oversize materials are comprised of printed advertisements and brochures. Much of these materials date from the early days of indoor plumbing and include "amazing" products like self-heating folding bathtubs and thermal bath cabinets. General images of both products and women bathing children are found throughout the collection.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Subseries one is organized by name of company. There are also eight folders arranged by type including; rules for using the bathroom, postcards, general images, miscellaneous advertisements for bathing establishments and import/export documents. Subseries two two mostly consists of pamphlets and books relating to baths and bathing and is arranged by type.

Administration

Author
Vanessa Broussard-Simmons and Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Baths and Bathing is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Processing Information
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections. A large portion of stored material from the original acquisition received minimal level processing, which resulted in additions to this Subject category. This effort included basic arrangement and replacement of non-archival housing for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed. Revisions to the encoded finding aid were made to reflect the added content in context to the previously processed material.
Minimal level processing and enhancement of the machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, September 2017.

Digital Content

More …

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Baths and Bathing, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Conditions Governing Use note
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Materials in the Archives Center

Materials in the Archives Center
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)

Forms Part Of


More Information

General

General
Bathing establishments offered various types of baths including Hot-Air, Russian and Turkish as a source of health, enjoyment and relief from stress. The bathing establishments included public treatments and women often were told they could be treated at home by the facility. Bathing establishments treated women for general debility, female complaints, rheumatism and nervousness. Often the Public baths included hotel, calidarium, tepidarium, baths, barber, chiropodist and manicure rooms catering mostly to the traveling businessmen.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Business ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Baths Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Swimming pools Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Plumbing Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bath tubs Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Toilets Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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