Mrs. Stewart's Bluing

Mrs. Stewart's Bluing is a brand of liquid bluing agent used for whitening fabrics. It is primarily a colloid of the blue pigment "Prussian blue" and water.[1][2]

Mrs. Stewart's Bluing.

History

Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing was started in the late 1870s in Litchfield, Minnesota by Albert Emerson Stewart, a traveling salesman for a Chicago grocery wholesaler, and his wife Nancy Eleanor Taylor Stewart.

They concocted the mixture for the product in the basement of their house and decided to name it after Nancy. However, Albert opted not to market their product with his wife's face, instead using a photo of his wife's mother as he felt his wife was too young and that an older face would instill more confidence in the product. The portrait has remained on the packaging ever since.

The Stewarts sold the rights to manufacture their product to Luther Ford of Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1883.[3] The product has continued to be manufactured exclusively in Minnesota.[4]

In 1976 the company moved from Minneapolis to Bloomington, a nearby suburb.

The company once attempted to change the photo on the label to appear "kinder looking" but was changed back after customers complained.

Uses

The product is primarily used on white fabrics that have become dingy or have taken on a yellow color cast over time. When adding a small amount of the product to wash water, fabric items will actually be dyed slightly blue. However, because blue and yellow are complementary colors in the subtractive color model of color perception, adding a trace of blue color to yellowed fabrics visually cancels out the yellow color cast making the fabric appear very white.

Like other bluing agents, the product can be used for other purposes as well. This includes dyeing hair, dyeing pets, dyeing denim jeans and is sometimes used by white-haired people in a blue rinse.

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See also

References
  1. Schwarcz, Joe (January 22, 2016). "The Right Chemistry: Columbo, your laundry and liquid bluing". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  2. van Willigen, J.; van Willigen, A. (2015). Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Family Farms, 1920-1950. Kentucky Remembered: An Oral History Series. University Press of Kentucky. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-8131-4977-6. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  3. Bakken, G.M. (2016). The World of the American West: A Daily Life Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. Daily Life Encyclopedias. ABC-CLIO. p. 282. ISBN 978-1-4408-2860-7. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  4. "History of Mrs. Stewart's Bluing: Company, Bottles, Competition, Locations". Retrieved 28 February 2017.

Further reading
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