Washerwoman 1861. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018670712/
We can all imagine a 19th-century washerwoman. My mind pictured a woman, old before her time, with beefy arms showing from her sleeveless top as she carts around the clothing with sweat dripping off her face. This woman appears with a soldier and three children in a photograph taken in Washington, D.C. called “Tent life of the 31st Penn Inf.” She is balancing a basket in front of a tent and a vented metal box, perhaps a stove, while other soldiers look on from behind. Her sleeves are rolled up. A hole in her sweater betrays her poverty. She looks strong and neither brawny nor old.