The Deschutes Historical Museum is located in the historic Reid School in Bend, Oregon. One of the old second-floor classrooms includes a display of artifacts relating to home life in early Bend.
Shown above is a rope bed, the type of bed commonly used before the manufacture of steel springs.
According to the Museum display:
“One of the problems with a rope bed was the constant need to retighten the ropes as they stretched with use. Once a week or so they would be tightened with the use of a bed key or straining wrench and wedges. The fork of the key was put over the rope and twisted pulling the rope tight. A wedge was then put through the rope hole to hold it tight and the key was moved to the next rope and the process was repeated.”
A bed key and wedges are shown above.
Shown above is a detail of the rope bed.
According to the Museum display:
“The mattress was called a tick. It was basically a bag that was filled with cornhusks, horsehair, feathers or straw. Homemade quilts were commonly used for warmth. The well-know express ‘Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite’ is said to be from the rope bed days when a tightly roped bed was best for a good night’s sleep. The straw ticks quite often became full of bugs that didn’t always feed on the straw filling.”
According to the Museum display:
“Although the needle was in use 40,000 years ago, it wasn’t until the year 1830 that the first sewing machine came into use. A tailor could make about thirty stitches a minute—the simplest machine made 200 stitches a minute! Tailoring was such a big business at the time that the originator of the machine (in France) was run out of town and his factory destroyed. Unfortunately, he never recovered from the loss and died in poverty.”
Shown above is the Security Safe, which was the latest thing in food storage in the late 1800s. The safe kept foods such as flour, sugar, coffee, and tea safe from small varmints.
According to the Museum display:
“Food safes were used when cooking was done for large groups of people, typically in a boarding house or in mining or logging camps or on a large ranch.”
Shown above is the Victor Victrola model IX, a popular upscale tabletop Victrola. Production of this model was started in 1911 and continued until 1924. The original 1911 selling price was $50. The model shown above was produced in 1920.
According to the Museum display:
“To adjust the volume, the front doors can be opened or closed to suite the ambient noise in the room. With the doors closed, the player is often loud enough to play in a crowded room, however, the sound is substantially improved with both doors open as far as possible.”