ABSTRACT - THE BATHTUB ART MUSEUM A virtual museum dedicated to the history and appreciation of the
BATH TUB might strike some people as dull, and evidence that some people have far too much time on their hands, but the importance of the tub in the history of human hygiene, relaxation and even erotica is profound. Few of us would buy a house with an aesthetically unpleasing tub in the bathroom. We want a bath that looks pleasing as well as useful. Artists through the ages have been keen to depict the bath and their models reclining in its waters. From the 1930’s onwards picture
postcards of bathtubs and their occupants became common. The website was originally conceived to show off one woman’s collection of over 200 such postcards. It is a labour of love by Carye Bye. There is no actual museum, only a virtual one. The author does invite people to make appointments to visit her US home to see her collection for themselves though, which is rather nice of her. The postcards exhibited
range from voyeuristic
images of women
bathing drawn or in some cases photographed as if through a keyhole by some secret admirer, to bawdy seaside postcards, to cute valentine cartoons. There are images of cats and dogs in the tub. Even Betty Boop apparently gets in on the act. There are links to images of bathtub races; bathtubs used a photo-documentary feature on the bathtub regime in an Inverarey prison, makeshift cut-price baptism fonts, and much more besides. The site is the work of a true affectionado, or a fanatic if you wish to be negative about it. Though there are omissions, such as any reference that I can find to Millais’ painting of Ophelia, which though drawn as a river drowning, involved filming the model floundering about in a cold-water bathtub, which almost gave her pneumonia. The images Bye presents are engaging and thoughtful, often romantic and amusing. She shows empty tubs and pictures of people bathing in beans for charity events. The range and potential uses of the humble tub are legion, and the museum celebrates them all.
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