Old-fashioned laundry devices on display at ag museum

The Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village announced the opening of Grandma's Wash Day.

The new exhibit includes various household items and traces the evolution of devices and machines dating from the mid-1800s to 1933 that were used to launder clothes. Patrons are invited to travel back in time to the good old days when cutting edge inventions made doing laundry a breeze.

Museum Director Carolyn Claypoole of Lewes said the machines on exhibit tend to spur interesting, sometimes painful, stories from patrons. One visitor said, "My grandmother had one of these [washing machines]. I remember her doing the wash and running the clothes, and often times her fingers, through the wringer." Another patron said, "My relatives had one of these gas-powered washing machines at their farm; they had to tote water uphill from the well just to fill it."

The Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village is at 866 North DuPont Hwy., Dover. For more information, go to www.agriculturalmuseum.org.