I wonder if they know?

[Artyman]

Hi folks,
Trying to avoid the heat today I spend time surfing around and found this on the Texas war museum site...pic is small so heres a link for you to see a bigger one:

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2261027820042533813EXwWNj

http://thumb13.webshots.net/t/30/466/0/27/82/2261027820042533813EXwWNj_th.jpg (http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2261027820042533813EXwWNj)

You see what everyone else does, the Sibly stove, the folding chair, the desk/table thing, but that rack holding the saddle blanket, well, it ain't a blanket rack...

....it's a bed!, or what's left of it.

I wonder if they know?

I saw one of these years ago in a small town history museum. What it is is a bed that's like a giant camp stool! The one I saw had a head board and foot board that slipped between the rails. It had a canvas bed that wrapped around the side frame rails and was tacked in place. You can see the nail holes in the one in the pic. The whole thing comes apart into a pile of boards. It made for a rather high off the ground bed, but in an officer's wall that didn't matter. Was more room to slip stuff under the bed.

Just thought you'd enjoy a change from the usual fare we haft'a eat!

Harry

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Yep, they know. They sent me some pics awhile back for a project I was doing.

[Spinster]

A lot of odd portable beds survived in the Deep South, as folks did not quit having 'sleeping porches' down here until a few decades ago. I still have one. (Okay, I put glass in the windows and its air conditioned, but I do have one, and it could be a real one with 30 minutes and a screw driver)

That's where my two original folding beds came from--just off somebody else's porch.

At any rate, that style Harry is looking at is occassionally seen labeled as a 'quilting frame'. That is, until somebody who quilts points out the obvious.

[Spinster]

Here's another type of folding bed, with a headboard/footboard arrangement occassionally seen in images of officers tents. This version is quite cumbersome to transport--other than the endboards and supports folding into the long retangular frame, the frame itself does not fold and transports full length.

It is however, very comfortable with a feather tick.

[J. Donaldson]

It looks very reminiscent of Thoreau's bed that he used at Walden.

http://www.concordcollection.org/default.asp?IDCFile=DETAILS.IDC,SPECIFIC=19177,NEX TRECORDS=0,PREVRECORDS=0,DATABASE=1229421,LISTIDC= PAGE.IDC,RECORDMAX=10,RECNO=2,WORDS=bed

[tenfed1861]

The author's name slips me,but if you look at the drawings for camp furniture in "The Prarie Traveler" (1858 or 59),there is a bed that is much like the canvas bed with head/foot board you described.The head and foot board were used as both the legs and also used to hold the canvas mattress up off the ground.The mattress was held in place by simply inserting the poles through a small slot and putting a peg in place.I will look up the description tommorrow at work during my down time for more details.Hope this helps.

[Spinster]

That's Capt Randolph Marcy's The Prairie Traveler

It's a delightful read, everything you need to know to go west and make your fortune.
http://www.kancoll.org/books/marcy/


That bed is one item in the breakdown furniture designed to fit easily in the wagon. I've had a reproduction one for several years. It no more trouble to transport than tent poles.