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Bedtime
A place for
sleeping and perhaps some privacy, the bedroom was a natural place to
write in one's diary.
In this one room, too, was a bed. A bed of which to sing and
on which to dream . . . . Four slender pointed posts, smooth and
silvery from the polishing twirl of many passing hands, upheld on the
sturdy frame across which ran, to and fro, a network of heavy cord.
Della
Thompson
 Children slept
and stored clothing in their bedrooms. There were 5.09 persons per
dwelling in Michigan in 1890 and not everyone, especially in large
families, had a bedroom of his or her own. But even a shared bedroom
offered a quiet place.
Our bedroom, for the three of us, in the old house, had one
regular window, with double hung, up and down sash, in which we tacked
mosquito netting in lieu of screens . . . . Mother would wet down a
sheet in cold water and hang [it] up ceiling high to absorb a little
of the stifling heat.
Alice Laura
Stevenson
Children usually
washed themselves daily in the bedroom using a washbowl and pitcher, a
sponge, a towel and a strip of oilcloth to protect the floor. Most
bedrooms did not have built-in closets to store clothing, so it hung on
hooks along the walls. If you had no room to call your own, as James
Corrothers, you would have had to carry all of your clothing with you.
My clothing consisted of Grandfather's old garments, turned
wrong-side-out and cut down by him to as near my size as he could
guess. In the fall and winter, as the weather grew colder, I put on
additional clothing until, sometimes, I was wearing three and four
suits at once.
James
Corrothers
Designed as
private spaces, bedrooms were often sparse on decorative bric-a-brac as
they were rarely seen by anyone outside the immediate family. Bedrooms
usually contained a bed, bureau, washstand, table, and one or more
straight back chairs.
I have found a feather bed comfortable, but would not
recommend it in hot weather . . . . Quilts for mild weather were works
of art and much prized.
Alice Laura
Stevenson
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