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Laundry drying at Dhoby Ghaut

Title

Year/Period

c. 1890

Region

Singapore

Material

Paper

Dimension

Image size: 35.4 x 24.1 cm

Accession No.

1993-00290

Collection of

National Museum of Singapore

The term ‘dhoby’ translates to laundry in Hindi while ‘ghaut’ refers to ‘place or steps along a river’. Indian laundrymen or ‘dhobies’ would routinely leave laundered clothes to dry out in the open in the Dhoby Ghaut area. They would wash the clothes of nearby residents along the banks of the fresh water stream of Sungei Bras Bassa.