The House-Keeper's Guide and Indian Doctor

1851, and one small book promises ice creams, perfumery, soap, furniture polish, a complete system of doctoring — and model letters for every occasion.

Curious Facts

Everything below is in the book — each one links straight to the page it comes from.

  1. The first model letter is a child's first letter. The young Miss begs her parents to excuse the writing, "since I have learned to join my letters together" — the book scripts even a child's first attempt at correspondence. Read it in the book →
  2. A brother's apology comes with a bribe. The model reply to an offended sister ends: "I have bought you a most brilliant doll, which I shall bring up with me when I come to Hudson." Read it in the book →
  3. The mistress names cautionary husbands. Her model answer to a proposal cites the neighbors: "There is Tom. Timber the carpenter, and Jack Hammer the smith" — trade-pun names, married six months and coming home drunk. Read it in the book →
  4. The washing recipe gets top billing. The celebrated Chemical Washing Recipe — a quarter pound each of soap, soda and quick-lime — closes the book, and the clothes "will want but very little rubbing." Read it in the book →
  5. Soap was made from bayberries. Bayberry, or Myrtle Soap boils ten pounds of myrtle wax — bayberry tallow — with potash: the candle-scented soap of the 1851 household, made at home. Read it in the book →
  6. "Bear's Oil" contains no bear. The hair-dressing entry admits it flatly: "The best description of lard oil, properly perfumed, is far preferable" — the name sold the bear, the jar held the pig. Read it in the book →
  7. Ice cream, 1851: straight from the cow. The creams chapter starts Hasty Cream with "a gallon of milk warm from the cow" — and Currant-water Ice freezes currant juice and loaf sugar "as directed for cream." Read it in the book →
  8. Shoe polish ends with a glass of rum. Black Ball — bayberry tallow, beeswax, mutton tallow and lamp black — takes "half a glass of rum" as its final ingredient. Read it in the book →
  9. Cosmetics come from the pharmacy shelf. Cream of Lilies is castor oil shaken with sal tartar until "thick and white," perfumed with lavender — beauty products built from the same cupboard as the remedies. Read it in the book →
Rights & ReuseThe complete text of The House-Keeper's Guide and Indian Doctor (1851) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.