The following is the first in a series of autobiographical and biographical sketches about Project Laundry List volunteers. Anne Lawrence is a clothesline hobbyist and historian who has given dozens of talks to community groups:

Among my fondest memories as a young girl are those of my mother and grandmother hanging the wash outdoors on clotheslines, while I had the grown-up job of ‘clothespin handler.’ I loved watching the laundry flapping in the breezes, and I sensed the relaxation and tranquillity that seemed to envelop my mother when she finished hanging a load of laundry.  I can still picture us both burying our noses in the freshly dried clothes and inhaling that unmistakable sunshine smell. We would laugh at my father’s frozen-stiff long-johns fresh off the winter clothesline that were brought into the house standing up like cardboard cutouts. 

Many years later I came upon a 1966 photo that I had taken of my mother leaning on the porch railing with a small load of clothes hanging on the lines behind her.  The nostalgia and warm feelings triggered by that photo became the inspiration for my hobby of collecting images and representations of clotheslines in all forms, which I’ve been doing for the past 19 years. I’ve amassed a sizable collection, including paintings, photographs, objects of art, jewelry, clothing, books, personal stories, ceramics, crafts, wallpaper, postcards, greeting cards, antique laundry items, comic strips, videos, music, and I’ve organized reference materials into ever-growing binders on subjects such as clotheslines in the news, in film, video, essays, advertising, literature, music, and more. 

Greg Niemeyer will be working with Project Laundry List in the coming month to produce a project at the Venice Bienniale about what clotheslines will look like after sea levels rise in the Maldives. Stay tuned for more information. We are involving old friend of Project Laundry List, Michael Dorsey of Wesleyan University, and new board of directors' member, Marian Dioguardi. Project Laundry List's first donor was artist Sabra Field, who has extensive experience in Italy. We have approached her for ideas and assistance, as well. Stay tuned to this blog as things develop.

Greg Niemeyer studied Classics and Photography in Switzerland and started working with new media when he moved to the Bay Area in 1992. He received his MFA from Stanford University in New Genres (that's what New Media was called at the time) in 1997. At the same time, he founded the Stanford University Digital Art Center (SUDAC), which he directed until 2001, when he was appointed as a professor for New Media at UC Berkeley's Department of Art Practice. At UC Berkeley, he is involved in the Berkeley Center for New Media, CITRIS, and the Data and Democracy Initiative focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experiences. 

Dr. Michael Dorsey is Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies in the Wesleyan University College of Environment. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment (B.S. & Ph.D.), Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (M.F.S.) and The Johns Hopkins University (M.A.).  His articles have appeared in Nature; Carbon Market Europe; Journal of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA); Capitalism, Nature, Socialism and the Los Angeles Times. He has also authored numerous book chapters for edited volumes. His work focuses on global environmental governance, with particular attention to climate and biodiversity policy.  Other interests include understanding how theories underscoring political ecology, political-economy, and institutional and organizational behavior explain and inform myriad efforts to manage the environment and shape sustainable development.

Beyond the academy for more than two decades Dorsey has provided strategic guidance and advice to governments, foundations, firms and a multitude of others on the interplay of multilateral environment policy, finance and economic development matters.  In 1992, he was a member of the U.S. State Department Delegation to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, “The Earth Summit,”—led by President George H. W. Bush. From 1994-96 he was a task force member of President William Jefferson Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. A member of the Sierra Club since the mid-1980s, Michael served seven years (from 1997-2003; and from 2009-10) as a Director on the Club’s national board. From April 2007 until November 2008 Dr. Dorsey was a member of Senator Barack Obama’s energy and environment Presidential campaign team. In July 2010 Lisa Jackson, the US Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) Administrator, appointed Dr. Dorsey to the EPA’s National Advisory Committee.

by Cas Middlemas

In Australia the use of rotary clothes hoists to dry laundry outdoors is so well-established that many consider this piece of backyard equipment a part of our cultural history, to the point that it has developed an iconic status. The clothes hoist was used in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games ceremony and has been prominent at a number of festivals. It is amazing to think that this structure - for drying clothes - has been represented in the arts, including paintings, sculptures, poems and cartoons. Many Australians would believe the rotary clothes hoist was invented here in the early twentieth century, however research has shown that a number of sophisticated clothes hoist patents were being granted in the United States of America as early as the 1850s.

In putting together a book on the origins of the all-metal rotary clothes hoist in Australia entitled Hung Out to Dry: Gilbert Toyne’s classic Australian clothes hoist, Peter Cuffley, my co-author, and I found numerous American patents that predated those in our own country. This article provides the reader with a very brief overview of the diversity and initiative shown by Americans in the mid 1800s when it came to the challenges of drying laundry. American designs were not the focus of Hung Out to Dry, but we did include several of the significant American patents in our book. Due to the ease of accessing American patent information via the internet at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website this was a simple task compared to finding early Australian patents.

Project Laundry has a monthly newsletter filled with information for those of us who prefer to hang laundry rather than use an electric dryer. Sign up for the newsletter to get your copy which, this month, includes this short article.

Hanging Out In Britain

A country that is notorious for damp cold weather and small gardens is not what most people would think of as a perfect place to hang laundry out, yet in Britain as in many other European countries, most people do hang laundry out. The stigma, I have heard, is creeping in, but for the most part it is a normal thing to do.

It is not that electric dryers are unavailable - they are, but as most homes do not have a separate utility room and basements are very rare, the space for a dryer is usually in the garage. Another option is the dual washing/drying machine which is also available.