Mend & Make Do at Miss Porter’s House museum
Tips for a sustainable future as practiced in the early twentieth century. Just like great-grandmother, Florence, Ella and Hazel Porter made, mended and recycled clothing, shoes, furniture, soap, flour bags and much more. Frugal habits and careful budgeting meant that the Porters really did Mend & Make Do.
Visitors can turn the pages of newly acquired replicas of the museum’s notebooks. They’ll discover how Ella and Hazel budgeted for their dog Cooee, kept track of their grocery purchases, and noted every expensive phone call.
Children can explore the workings of the soap saver, the butter cooler, a darning egg and devise new uses for the many flour bags. Ella and Hazel Porter were not rich. Their father, Herbert, died in 1919 when they were young children. The girls worked as secretaries, typists and shop assistants supporting themselves and Florence, their widowed mother. Their carful lifestyle was a necessity.
People who lived through the Depression years of the 1930s and the Second World War learnt to reuse and recycle. These habits often continued through life. The Porter women made their own clothes, remodeled older clothes, and mended tears and rips. They knitted, crocheted, and sewed, made baskets, embroidered pillowslips, and stenciled tablecloths. Whatever could be repaired, was repaired.
See the evidence of a sustainable lifestyle at Miss Porter’s House during Mend & Make Do.
Facilities at Mend & Make Do at Miss Porter’s House museum
- Family Friendly
- Non Smoking
- Shop / Gift Shop
- 434 King Street, Newcastle West, 2302
- All tickets - $10 to $34