Lauren A. Blog 6: Oldewash.com

The Lee Maxwell Washing Machine Museum online is one man's personal collection of antique washing machines. The online materials are drawn from a physical museum Lee Maxwell operates in Eaton, Colorado.

Collection Principles
The collection seems to be drawn entirely from one man's somewhat eccentric hobby. The earliest machine I was able to find on the site was from 1880. I found one item from the 1960s, but most of the collection seems to be pre 1950s. A "virtual tour" of the physical museum reveals giant warehouse spaces packed with machines. An article I found online in the Journal of Antiques from February 2006 reveals that at that time Maxwell had 999 of his 1,036 machines online. No information is given about why Maxwell began collecting washing machines or why he chose to digitize his collection.

Object Characteristics
The website contains a database of manufacturer information, a database of patent information, a database of digital photos of the machines in Maxwell’s possession and digital images of the machines Maxwell wants for his collection (these are largely historic advertisements for the machines). Most of the images are fairly low resolution JPEGs, which open in new windows. Some machines also have very low-resolution contemporary MPEG videos showing how the machine was used. The main attraction, a database of Maxwell’s machines, is searchable by year, maker, keyword and whether or not they have videos.

Metadata
No information is given about how the website was created. The small and brief clue that the virtual tour is copyright Ulrich Schmitz 2000 does show that Maxwell did enlist some help in putting his online museum together. Each entry in the museum database includes at least one image, the manufacturer’s name, the place and year of manufacture, the model name and a brief description.

Intended Audience
An incredible amount of work obviously went into entering, uploading and organizing this information. The end result is amateurish in its design, but the man still has to be lauded for his efforts. An elderly man from a Middle America town of about 4,000 people, Maxwell is not the typical website entrepreneur. Despite its aesthetic shortcomings and anachronism, the website does its job, making a very specialized collection of antiques to the world. Maxwell seems to want nothing more than to share his love of washing machines. That dream is realized through oldewash.com.