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Vacuum

National Museum of American History
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Object Details

Hoover Company
Description
Although the vacuum cleaner had been invented in the early 20th century, the mass production and sales of vacuum cleaners did not take off until the economic boom that followed the decade after the First World War (1914-1918). This Hoover vacuum model 700 was produced between 1926 and 1929 and was the first of its kind to feature an aluminum body, an on/off switch, and the agitator brushroll—an innovation that used metal beater strips to vibrate pieces of dirt from carpets. The vacuum was one of the many supposedly labor saving devices marketed in the 1920s that promised to liberate middle-class women, now managing their houses without live-in maids, from the drudgery of housework. Accordingly advertisements for the Hoover 700 depicted a chic flapper of the late 1920s using the vacuum. Although the vacuum did clean more thoroughly than the broom and dustpan, the popularization of such appliances created more exacting standards of cleanliness thus making the hope of simplified housework largely illusory.
Credit Line
Betty B. Ross
1927
ID Number
1990.3134.01
catalog number
1990.3134.01
nonaccession number
1990.3134
catalog number
1990.3134.1 A,B
Object Name
vacuum cleaner
Physical Description
metal (overall material)
cloth (overall material)
rubber (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 104 cm x 31 cm; 40 15/16 in x 12 3/16 in
Place Made
United States: Ohio, North Canton
See more items in
Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
Family & Social Life
Domestic Furnishings
Artifact Walls exhibit
National Museum of American History
Record ID
nmah_1065670
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b4-db2b-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

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  • 1927: A Year in the Collections

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