There was a post about museums with shaving-related items. This museum had no collection nor education on traditional shaving. But they did have some interesting items, hope you enjoy.
Firstly I visited the Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach, CA. It was a Adobe House (ex-ranch) built in the 1840's I believe, and renovated in the 1930's, but the museum has put the house (as best they could with renovations) back to early times.
Small little place, mostly showing the history of this Ranch which was very large in the history of the city. The museum was pretty neat for the size and for being free, but it was mostly an Adobe house that was leftover from the land that was sold off. Never thought I would find so many shaving-related items, but a previous museum post got me thinking when I was there!
They at first had very little people around them (pre-Gold Rush) and their main export were hides and tallow. The museum guide explained well how the tallow let them extend the life of the meat (it would spoil if they tried to ship it back East at the early 1800's, and explained what tallow was used for, except to be honest, I don't think they understood what tallow was used for today. One of the guides handed me a bar of soap and said "see it is greasy and smells like beef, it's kind of gross." I said I have seen tons of tallow soaps and none were like this, today they scent it (I think I might have taught them a little!).
Should also say, Tallow was more common back then since they used it for light/candles as well, this was before electricity.
One really cool part was the main bedroom in the house was very feminine, apparently the wife just put what she wanted in there, which was mostly dressers and vanity table and jewelry boxes. BUT the man of the house (I forget which family this was, I think they were the Bixbys) had his own little small vanity table. They didn't feel the need to point it out, but there was no scuttle that I could tell (although I bet he had one) and there were pots to bring water into the room (they were trying to show before plumbing), and there was a mug with an Ever Ready brush sitting in it
Too bad the area was roped off, I really wanted to go look at it!
FYI, I know we have quite a few members in the SoCal area, this Ranch first of all is a huge part of the history of the Southbay. It also is free and is a really cool museum, if your SWMBO doesn't mind nerdy activities, or your family likes it, it's a neat couple of hours, I would definitely recommend it:
http://www.rancholoscerritos.org/
(I don't have anything to do with the museum, it isn't for-profit so I figured it would be ok to post a link, if there's a problem I apologize)
Firstly I visited the Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach, CA. It was a Adobe House (ex-ranch) built in the 1840's I believe, and renovated in the 1930's, but the museum has put the house (as best they could with renovations) back to early times.
Small little place, mostly showing the history of this Ranch which was very large in the history of the city. The museum was pretty neat for the size and for being free, but it was mostly an Adobe house that was leftover from the land that was sold off. Never thought I would find so many shaving-related items, but a previous museum post got me thinking when I was there!
They at first had very little people around them (pre-Gold Rush) and their main export were hides and tallow. The museum guide explained well how the tallow let them extend the life of the meat (it would spoil if they tried to ship it back East at the early 1800's, and explained what tallow was used for, except to be honest, I don't think they understood what tallow was used for today. One of the guides handed me a bar of soap and said "see it is greasy and smells like beef, it's kind of gross." I said I have seen tons of tallow soaps and none were like this, today they scent it (I think I might have taught them a little!).
Should also say, Tallow was more common back then since they used it for light/candles as well, this was before electricity.
One really cool part was the main bedroom in the house was very feminine, apparently the wife just put what she wanted in there, which was mostly dressers and vanity table and jewelry boxes. BUT the man of the house (I forget which family this was, I think they were the Bixbys) had his own little small vanity table. They didn't feel the need to point it out, but there was no scuttle that I could tell (although I bet he had one) and there were pots to bring water into the room (they were trying to show before plumbing), and there was a mug with an Ever Ready brush sitting in it
Too bad the area was roped off, I really wanted to go look at it! FYI, I know we have quite a few members in the SoCal area, this Ranch first of all is a huge part of the history of the Southbay. It also is free and is a really cool museum, if your SWMBO doesn't mind nerdy activities, or your family likes it, it's a neat couple of hours, I would definitely recommend it:
http://www.rancholoscerritos.org/
(I don't have anything to do with the museum, it isn't for-profit so I figured it would be ok to post a link, if there's a problem I apologize)
