While the average gold miner had no use for a white dress shirt in early San Francisco, many gents preferred them. These folks were the genteel and included gamblers, politicians, attorneys, and other professional types.
White dress shirts were primarily made of muslin, a loosely woven cotton. They were constructed like nightshirts that were pulled over the head. Since the only parts of the shirt that were displayed to the public were the waistband, fronts, and collars, these were made of more expensive linen fabric detachable from the main body of the shirt.
In order to get the shirt as white as possible, the laundry process required boiling the shirt. An additional process required boiling the shirt in starch to stiffen the linen fronts to keep these elements from wrinkling.
In the mid-1850’s washerwomen and men toiled over tables situated around a nine-acre lake called Washer Women’s Bay. They boiled the shirts and hung
them to dry. The visual effect of the hanging white shirts looked like sails in the breeze.
These enterprises were the precursors to the Chinese Laundries that were born in San Francisco.
Many of my characters in my novel Equal and Alike wore boiled white shirts in the normal course of their day. If you would like to read more about the life and times of those living in San Francisco in the mid-19th century, please join me in the adventure.