The washing machine is hand-operated and was built in the 1930s. Clothes were placed in the machine with sssoap and water, and aftr they had soaked, the handle was pumped up and down to activate the agitator. This movement helped to get rid of the dirt and although pumping was hard work, it wasn't as hard as scrubbing clothes by hand on a washboard, which had been the previous method of washing clothes. The washing machine was donated to the museum in 1994.