Genealogy Chat

Floor Cloth A floor cloth is a painted canvass coated in varnish. It was the linoleum of the 1800s. Floor Cloth, and Oil Cloth Covers: This name of floor cloth is applied to a manufacture of cloth painted over with oil colours, so as to be impenetrable to wet. . . . There is a great variety of styles in the patterns of oil cloth. Some are made to imitate marble casements; some wainscot boards, and some carpets of various kinds. Those are best which have several colours, and the pattern rather small. When the pattern is large, defects are sooner perceived; but again, in those which have a large pattern to imitate marble, defects may be repaired by a house painter. . . . Floor cloth is better for being kept for some considerable time before it is used, the paint getting harder, and it, therefore, is charged for partly according to its age; new floor cloth being cheaper than that which has been kept a year or two. . . Floor cloth is very useful in some apartments, on account of its impenetrability to water, and its drying so soon after being wetted; but water should be sparingly used in cleaning it, and still more should soap, for this latter will cause the paint to come off by dissolving the oil with which it was made. If not too much dirtied, floor cloth may be kept clean by wiping it with a damp cloth, and afterward rubbing it well with a dry cloth, and then with a brush until it shines. From, Thomas Webster, An Encyclopaedia Of Domestic Economy (New York, 1845), pp. 257-258.

My mum always used to call lino 'oilcloth' - so it could be an old name for it. Maz. XX

Sounds right, a poor man's alternative to carpet.

My Great Grandfather started employment (1871) as a printer and later was employed making linoleum (1901). However, he is also recorded in earlier records (1870s) as a Floor Cloth Printer, which I believe was involved with the printing of Canvas used on floors. Am I right? Has anyone else come across the term, or has an detail of such practice? Most grateful for your thoughts....