Manufacturer
DOWSWELL MFG. CO.
Wooden Washing Machine Tub
Date1890s
DimensionsOverall: 81.3 x 63.5 x 48.3 cm
Credit LineGift of Mr. Robert T. MacDonald, London, Ontario, 1965
Object number1965.138.001
Label TextThe Hamilton, Ontario, firm, Dowswell Manufacturing, produced this washing machine tub. Brothers George and Frederick Dowswell operated the business. They had first worked for the owners of what was called the Hamilton Industrial Works. That company began with lightning rods before beginning to manufacture washing machines, clothes wringers and mangles. As was quite common in 19th-century Hamilton, the Dowswell brothers purchased the factory, renaming it the Dowswell Manufacturing Company sometime in the mid-1890s. The Dowswell brothers moved their rapidly expanding “all electric” washing machine business to a larger plant in east Hamilton shortly after 1900.
NameWasher, Clothes
