Browsing by Author "Hearn-Desautels, Gabriel"

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    Progressive Ambivalence: Upholding and Upending Tradition in Philadelphia’s First Public Bathhouse
    (2019) Hearn-Desautels, Gabriel; Dorsey, Bruce
    Philadelphia’s first, charity-run public bathhouse was established in 1898 by the Public Baths Association of Philadelphia. By the turn of the century, bathing had become inexorably linked to a series of social beliefs, particularly regarding hygiene, morality, and domesticity. In this paper I examine the development of these beliefs and discuss the ways in which the PBA’s first bathhouse became a site in which they were simultaneously upheld and challenged. In doing so, I hope to shed light on the relatively ambivalent nature of bath reformers’ feelings toward the city’s poor.