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Of course, before the clothes were ironed, they had to be laundered. Lester's collection of washing machines includes a 1925 steam washer. The washer sat on a cook stove, and had a false bottom where steam was created. A handle on top was used to move the clothes back and forth in the tub. An earlier model - a 1904 "Busy Bee" washer - was featured in an advertisement that said "A Busy Wife Should Use a Busy Bee Washer." The ad noted that a woman could wash 100 pieces of clothing in one hour, using a Busy Bee, without any hard work being done!
The Rapid Vacuum Washer featured a tub and something resembling a modern toilet plunger. For $2.09, the Wonder Washer was available from Sears and Roebuck.
Wash day, though, came but once a week. For other household chores, Lester's collection includes a central vacuum system patented in 1907, as well as a variety of vacuums, and a wide selection of vicious-looking carpet stretchers.
"You could bake cookies in that oven," Lester said.
His collection also includes an Electro Lux Kerosene refrigerator.
"That refrigerator was used before the family got electricity in 1948," he said.
Refrigeration was a challenge for farm homes, where electricity was often considered a luxury. He has a porcelain Frigidaire with a belt-drive compressor, and an old icebox from the pre-electrical era. In those days, he said, an affluent household would have used something like his Iceless Well Cooler to keep perishables cool. The round, cone-shaped metal case has shelves in it to hold butter, milk and maybe a pie or two. The cooler would then be lowered to just above the water line in the well, keeping the contents cool.
"This was a rich man's cooler," he said. "We just dropped a bucket in the well, and stopped before you got to the water."
In the old days on the farm, much of the food was home-grown. For those who raised poultry, Lester's "Wooden Incubator" or "Little Brown Hen" will bring back memories. The kerosene incubator offered a great way to speed the hatching process.