The Household–Newly Digitized from Collections

“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home”. Or, so reminds the masthead to The Household, a monthly journal published during the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the American housewife. “Devoted to her interests”, this journal tackled an astounding breadth of household concerns from the care, education, feeding, and health of children, pets, plants and the infirm to the practicalities of budgeting, time-management, provisioning, decorative crafting and repair, self-care, and personal enrichment.

The work of digitizing this journal from among our print holdings is credited to the dedicated staff from UW-Digital Library Services. Browse the digital collections, here.

As you look to strike that work-life balance, look no further than this fascinating, substantive journal for its tips, tricks and whimsy, let alone, its insight into aspects of the who, what, and how our households were, and are yet, managed.

Two columns and content that amused our staff:

• Plain Cake recipe from Volume 5 (4), April 1872, page 86; column on right, baking knowledge may be required
• Caring for Cats from Volume 17 (3), March 1884, page 69; center column, directed to children