An exhibition about London's domestic servants and latterday cleaners illustrated with contemporary pictures, cartoons, room settings and paintings, covering the servant employer relationship, how cleaning took place without soap and piped water, what constituted a proper spring clean, and with a programme of talks and workshops, is being held at the Geffrye Museum of the Home until 4th September.
 
The smooth running of a London household required a large number of servants, and changing social conditions, wealthier middle class, a rising population, changes in farming techniques requiring less labour and the hardships of factory work making life in domestic service more attractive, of a range of generally tough options. In 1777 Lord North introduced a man-servant tax to help finance the American wars, which remained in place in one form or another until 1939 and naturally favoured female domestic employment - apart from the seven years from 1785-92 when a female servant tax was also raised.
 
New scenarios and subtle interventions in the museum's period rooms illustrate the changing nature of the relationship between servants and their employers over time - from the intimacy of a maid checking her master's hair for nits in the late 17th century, to an ayah caring for the children of an Anglo-Indian family in the late 19th century, to an au-pair picking up after the children she looks after in the middle of the 20th century.
 
The middle-class parlour, drawing room and living room tend to be thought of as rooms of leisurely retreat where friends and family gathered. However, these spaces were also places of discipline, hard manual labour and domestic skill. Swept Under the Carpet? explores the Geffrye's archives and collections to confront some of the realities of domestic life: how was table linen cleaned before soap, running water and washing machines were available? What was involved in the lighting of the hearth fire so synonymous with homely warmth? What was involved in a spring clean? And who cared for the children of the house?
 
These narratives highlight how the apparent ease and comfort of home has historically been made and maintained by servants - a vital contribution to domestic life which is frequently overlooked in history.
 
Swept Under the Carpet? is guest curated by Tessa Chynoweth and Laura Humphreys, AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award researchers from the Centre of Studies of Home - a partnership between the Geffrye and Queen Mary, University of London. The exhibition is supported by Queen Mary, University of London.

Talks
Servants in London Households 1600-1700 Friday 15 April, 1pm, free
Swept Under the Carpet? An exhibition highlights talk with a curator. Saturday 23 April, 2pm and 3.30pm, free
Servants in London Households 1700-1800 Friday 13 May, 1pm, free
Servants in London Households 1800-1900 Friday 17 June, 1pm, free
Servants in London Households 1900-2000 Friday 8 July, 1pm, free
 
A Spring Clean - Find out how servants used to clean the home in springtime, then create your own natural cleaning products using herbs and other ingredients. Saturday 21 May, 2-4pm. Tickets £16, £13 concs
 
Open Evening: The Servant Problem. Join us for a special evening uncovering the lives of servants, their relationships with their employers and the etiquette expected of them from the eighteenth to the twentieth century through drama, songs and anecdotes. Thursday 16 June, museum opens 6.30pm, performance 7-9pm. Tickets £16, £13 concs.
 
[The cartoon by John Collet shows a maid, compromised by the master of the house, holding a modern horsehair brush or broom which swept finer particles than the old-fashioned witches brooms. Whether the suggestive angle and position of the broom handle was intentional is not known. However, the close proximity of a pomander is also of interest as these were believed to sanitise 'pestiferous and corrupt air' - ed