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Household Linen

Posted On May 17, 2016 | 11:23 am | by jamesc | Permalink
James N. Carder (June 2016)

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Facts Worth Knowing about Household Linen and Collection of Recipes for Removing Stains, Compiled by W. G. Pilgram, 1921.

Preserved in the Dumbarton Oaks Archives is a pamphlet titled “Facts Worth Knowing about Household Linen and Collection of Recipes for Removing Stains.” Published in 1921, this pamphlet originally belonged to Mildred Bliss’s mother, Anna Dorinda Blaksley Barnes Bliss (1851–1935), and is inscribed on the cover: “Property of Mrs. W. H. Bliss, please return.” Apparently, Anna Bliss gave the pamphlet to her daughter, as the cover is also inscribed: “Valuable. Keep for Mildred.” Possibly, she gave Mildred Bliss the pamphlet to aid in the housekeeping of Dumbarton Oaks, which the Blisses had purchased in November 1920. The printed flyleaf of the pamphlet reads: “Dedicated to the Ladies of America who Admire Fine Linen.”

The number of linens needed for a household the size of Dumbarton Oaks was considerable. On November 14, 1921, Mildred Bliss dictated a memorandum, also preserved in the Dumbarton Oaks Archives, to her housekeeper, Amy Olney. She requested that Miss Olney acquire bed linens and towels for Dumbarton Oaks to include a sufficient quantity for “six masters bedrooms and fourteen maids and eight chauffeurs rooms.” Undoubtedly, knowledge about the removal of stains from this large number of linens would have been paramount for the successful running of the house.