Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: chores

A photo of an old-fashioned chore for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Or maybe these fellows are actually bored with this washtub and washboard as they pose with them for humorous effect. From an unused real photo postcard with no postmark or message. Thankfully, hand washing clothes in a tub is an outmoded task, and other onerous chores—like cleaning rugs by beating them or cutting grass with a push-powered reel mower (see below)—have also become unnecessary.

One in a series of humorous "Where Women Vote" postcards published in the 1910s that demonstrated the dire consequences of giving women the right to vote. It took until 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, to ensure that all women in the United States had the right to vote. This postcard was postmarked Broad Top, Pa., May 8, 1913, on the other side and was addressed to Mr. Ralph L. Diggins, Millersville, Lanc. Co, Pa., M.S.N.S., indicating that Diggins was a student at the Millersville State Normal School in Millersville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, at the time. Handwritten note on the back: "Dear Brother, We are very busy. Will write you a letter on Sunday. It is very warm today. The trees are in blossom. The apple tree is white and also the cherry trees. The plums are froze. Elsie." This postcard and others from the "Where Women Vote" series are pictured in Kenneth Florey's book, American Woman Suffrage Postcards: A Study and Catalog (McFarland, 2015), pp. 344-47.

In this 1907 Bamforth real photo postcard by Robert McCrum, a poor beleaguered husband sits on the floor and performs his household chores while his wife relaxes with a magazine and cigarette in a comfortable chair. One of his kids appears to be crying loudly, and the other one has climbed up on the table in the background to try out dad's tobacco pipe. It's interesting to see that the same wallpaper appears in another Bamforth postcard entitled Try This on Your Piano :

Handwritten caption: "Kathryn Keen & mother." Kathryn's mother, who's standing in the background and appears to be shaking a piece of carpet, is peering over at her daughter as the photographer takes the picture.

A housework photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. The young woman on the right is preparing to use her baseball bat of a carpet beater to remove the dust and dirt from the rug hanging on the frame in front of her, while the one on the left is sweeping the walk. Perhaps they're getting ready and airing out the flag--it's awkwardly draped across the doorway--for a celebration on the Fourth of July or some other patriotic occasion.