Bleached domestics

[markj]

Hi,

Could anyone provide a precise definition (and source) for the term "bleached domestics?"

I've looked all over the web but have only found period advertisements and literary references that mention them--but don't describe what they are. I would presume these are bleached, cotton-based fabrics (i.e., like muslin).

Thanks,

Mark Jaeger

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Bleached domestics

To my understanding, these are textiles produced in the US (hence, domestic rather than imported), and bleached to white. I've seen it most often in "new fabric for sale" sorts of descriptions, and then suggestions on making things like undergarments from "bleached domestic"... and undergarments were frequently white cotton.

I do not have further information on the preponderance of cotton as "domestic" or other fibers.

But at first glance of the title, I thought of servants who've been indoors a little too long. :)

[Drygoods]

Re: Bleached domestics

For whatever my 2 cents are worth in this, I would think that bleached domestics refered to household utility cloth for house cleaning, bed linens, curtain materiels &c, and sack cloth....of course it could be used for womens underclothing &c.
Mfr,
Judith Peebles

[markj]

Re: Bleached domestics

Hi,

Many thanks for your replies. I certainly hope I can obtain even more precise information about what "bleached domestics" means since, without tipping my hand too much, I have encountered documentation indicating this fabric was used in the manufacture of uniforms by the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Clothing Bureau.

Thanks again,

Mark Jaeger

[Carolann Schmitt]

Re: Bleached domestics

Mark,

From Cole's Encyclopedia of Dry Goods, 1900 edition:
DOMESTICS. A generic term embracing a wide range of home-made cotton cloths, of the grades in common use for household purposes, finished both brown and bleached and printed and dyed; such as muslin, drilling, cambric, ticking, denim, duck, sheeting, etc.

CWS comments:
- Although this edition was published in 1900, I've found the information in Cole's to be very accurate when it refers to textiles from earlier in the 19th century. The information provided is consistent with other primary sources from earlier decades.
- In this definition, I believe the phrase "home-made" refers to textiles commercially manufactured in the USA, not to fabrics produced "at home".

From Florence Montgomery's Textiles in America 1650-1870:
DOMESTICS. Cotton goods, shirting, and sheeting made in the United States.

From Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles:
DOMESTICS. 1. A general trade term for such household goods as sheets, pillowcases, towels, and blankets. Used in the plural form; the term originated about 1815 when New England mills began to specialize in heavy drills and sheetings, calling them domestics. 2. A general term for staple cotton fabric, e.g. shirting, sheeting.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Bleached domestics

[QUOTE=Carolann Schmitt]Mark,

From Cole's Encyclopedia of Dry Goods, 1900 edition:
DOMESTICS. A generic term embracing a wide range of home-made cotton cloths, of the grades in common use for household purposes, finished both brown and bleached and printed and dyed; such as muslin, drilling, cambric, ticking, denim, duck, sheeting, etc.

CWS comments:
- Although this edition was published in 1900, I've found the information in Cole's to be very accurate when it refers to textiles from earlier in the 19th century. The information provided is consistent with other primary sources from earlier decades.
- In this definition, I believe the phrase "home-made" refers to textiles commercially manufactured in the USA, not to fabrics produced "at home".

I'm not a textile researcher, but I imagine that the period domestic was similar to our bleached and unbleached muslin.

I first checked "Historic Accounts" (a transcribed general store ledger from 1859-1861) and found domestic listed 926 times. Upon further checking, domestic did not just refer to brown and bleached. I found blue domestic, domestic flannel, twilled bleached domestic, plaid domestic, striped domestic, but most of the entries were for brown and bleached domestic.

I have an 1892 edition of "Cole's Encyclopedia of Dry Goods" and the term "domesitcs" is not listed.

I have an 1872 book, "Scissors and Yardstick or All About Dry Goods" by C. M. Brown and C. L. Gates and domestic was not included in the listing of fabrics. In the section titled, Cotton Goods, both Brown and Bleached Cotton were listed and described. "Brown Cotton: This is the common unbleached cotton cloth. It is manufactured in different widths, corresponding to the purpose for which it is used. It is distinguished as 'shirting' and 'sheeting'. The 36 and 40-inch widths are known as 'shirting.' THis is always single fold. 'Sheetings vary in widths from 4-4 to 10-4. The widths 42, 45, adn 48 inches are used principally for pillow covers, and are always double fold. The ordinary sheetings are either 9-4 or 10-4 in width, and are quadruple fold. These good are usually woven plain, but sometimes twilled."

"Bleached Cotton is finer than the brown, and whitened by a chemical process. It is finished with a dressing or paste composed of calcined gypsum, sugar, alum, and the farina of starch. It is not finished where it is manufactured, but at mills erected for this purpose only. the widths correspond with those of brown cotton."