Exploring history through newspapers

An American Story

Have you explored the Historical Newspaper Collection on the Memorial Hall Library website? Give it a try...you never know what you'll find!

I can lose hours reading through newspapers looking for a story I'm researching. And I usually come across something off-topic that makes me curious, like this article from the London Lancet printed in the Andover Advertiser in 1853. I was curious about this line, "The best beds for children are of hair, or in winter, of hair and cotton" and wanted to know more.

Andover Advertiser, September 1853

Horsehair mattresses are still considered to be among the best in the world, with prices for custom-made horsehair mattresses in the tens to hundreds of thousand dollars. In centuries past, horsehair mattresses were reserved for royalty. Common folk slept on corn husks, straw, and other cheaper more easily attainable materials.

Why horsehair?

Horsehair has some unique properties that lends it to mattresses. After the long strands of tail and mane hair are harvested, the hair is washed, steamed, dried, and teased. The result is a clean and springy natural material. When the tangled strands are untangled, the horsehair is curly and has increased in volume. It's a process that has remained unchanged for centuries and still used today.

Each strand of horsehair is hollow, so air funnels easily through the mattress. One horsehair mattress manufacturer describes it as "millions of micro-springs." Horsehair is durable, so it can be rewashed, steamed, and teased to stuff a new mattress. Cotton and wool were, and still are, used along with horsehair, with the hair sandwiched between layers of wool or cotton.

The advice from the Lancet in 1853 when it came to mattresses was sound. I'm not so sure about if cold water will improve vision, and I haven't uncovered any stories about insanity and death as a result of bandaging the chest. Living with COVID-19 restrictions, I'm sure we can all appreciate the advice not confine young children to the house for more than 6 or 7 hours a day!

I found a few videos on working with horsehair that you might find interesting:

Preparing horsehair and Making a traditional wool and horsehair mattress.

The spare cot at my grandmother's house in upstate New York had a horsehair and cotton mattress, tufted like the one in the video. Have you ever slept like royalty on a horsehair mattress?

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