Mid-19th Century
America
Bronze, steel, copper wiring: various sizes
Campbell House Museum
Descriptive Detail
Six cast-iron bells, each mounted on a single coil steel spring and attached to a system of pulleys and levers, march above the pantry pass in the Campbell House kitchen. Beginning in the 1850s, many wealthy households would have a custom–designed and elaborate system of mechanical call bells that connected various rooms with the kitchen so that the servants could be summoned. Servants were expected not only to be efficient, biddable, and unseen, but they were always to be available and ready to serve at an instance’s notice. A call system insured this type of service.
Local Historical Connections
Both Mr. and Mrs. Campbell were known to be fair and considerate employers, but nonetheless, a servant’s life was not easy. The work was strenuous, time-consuming, and often ran from early morning to late at night. With their Irish background and an anti-slavery outlook, the Campbells most often chose to hire Irish immigrants—gaining assistance for their household while helping newcomers to America. Occasionally they hired German immigrants, and sometimes blacks. During Mr. and Mrs. Campbell’s life time there were always between six and ten servants in the household, including a coachman. The housekeeper functioned as the supervisor for the rest of the staff, kept all the keys, and reported directly to Virginia Campbell.
National Historical Connections
The nineteenth century was a time of enormous change for the United States. Immigration, the Civil War, and innovations in technology and business were just a few of the complex events and issues that contributed to rapid transformations of society. One societal relationship that was evolving was the relationship of upstairs and downstairs, between the mistress and master of the house and the men and women who worked for them. In the South in particular, many who supported the running of households were enslaved blacks. With Missouri a slave state, a variety of factors determined whether a head of a household in St. Louis would have enslaved persons working for them. Country of origin (Germans were often very vocal abolitionists), religious convictions, (Quakers believed in equality of all), or whether a family had migrated from the South all influenced an individual’s stand on who would do household work.
In middle-class homes, female family members were the main source of labor with servants hired to do only the most difficult tasks. Married and un-married working-class women (often Irish and blacks) were forced by economic necessity to work outside the home as domestics or in the manufacturing industries. In wealthy homes, servants often lived in their employer’s house, but were not considered as members of a large extended family. Servants were hired for specific tasks such as cook, housekeeper, maid, or nursemaid. The lady of the house, such as Mrs. Campbell, or her housekeeper would oversee the work of the servants.
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