Pillows Throughout History: A Place to Lay Your Head

"But was it Ulysses? Or was it only the warmth of the sun on her pillow? The thought kept beating in her like her heart." These lines from "The World As Meditation" by Wallace Stevens hint at the importance of the pillow at the end of the eighth century BC, when Homer wrote of a lonely wife and a mythical Greek king on his 20-year odyssey.

Throughout human history, during events ranging from funerals to everyday life to romantic escapades, pillows have been part of our culture and literature. We have come to know that pillows can be small or large, soft or hard, plain or elaborate, inexpensive or rare. We welcome their comfort and their beauty. We use them to sleep on and to decorate the sofa. We build them into car seats to improve our posture.

The pillow we know today is quite different than pillows from the eighth century BC. They still have an inside filler, the stuffing, and an outside covering, the decorative or functional case.

Over time, the stuffing of a pillow has been straw, cotton, wool, down, feathers, foam and "memory foam," sand, buckwheat hulls, air, polyester fiber-fill, and alpaca. In ancient times, pillows were made from stone, wood, metal, and porcelain, with the more exotic materials used exclusively by the wealthy.

In the fifth century BC, Confucius wrote, "With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and by bended arm for a pillow-I have still joy in the midst of these things." The common folk used what was handy and free to make themselves comfortable.

As civilization marched forward, textiles became for refined. Dyes were developed. Embroidery and other embellishments were added. The value of scent was understood both to mask the smell of unwashed linen and to ward off insects who might be taking up residence in the stuffing.

Lovers came to know the scent of their beloved, whether the fragrance of a cologne or flower bouquet for her or the odor of smoke, sweat, or leather for him.

The inherent purpose of the pillow is to support the body. The pillow, in the best orthopedic case, should keep the spine in alignment when the body is at rest in a horizontal position. At the most basic level, the pillow should make you comfortable. People who sleep on their side or on their stomach will want a different pillow than people who sleep on their back. The pillow for a nap on the couch is not the pillow for watching television from the floor. The pillow for the 250 pound man is not the pillow for the 115 pound woman.

To accommodate the aesthetic and preferences of so many different people and needs, pillows now come in a wide variety of types. There are neck pillows, bed pillows, body pillows, donut pillows, lumbar pillows, travel pillows, throw pillows, and husband (or reading) pillows.

The Industrial Age and mass production made standardization a commonplace phenomenon. Most bed pillows are now square or rectangular. The idea of a standard size pillow is a product of industrialization. There are three common sizes in the United States. The standard size pillow measures 20 by 26 inches, The queen size pillow measures 20 by 30 inches. The king size pillow measures 20 by 36 inches. The body pillow, boon to sore backs and pregnant women, lets people sleep on their side and still support arms, legs, and shoulders. The body pillow can be u-shaped or an extra long cylinder. There are u-shaped pillows to hug infants while they sleep.

Throw pillows are sometimes more decorative than functional. They come in many sizes and shapes including square, round, rectangular, cylindrical, and triangular. Some have trim, corded edges, fringe, or ruffles. Throw pillows are the top layer in decorating a room, an accent or fashionable dash of color and pattern to harmonize the paint and other fabric colors being used.

The Industrial Age also heralded the growth of the middle class. And what the upper class had, the middle class wanted, albeit a less expensive version. The idle Victorian lady could spend her afternoons at needlepoint on the hoop. The newly middle class housewife could purchase machine embroidered yardage and sew up fancy pillow covers that made her feel rich. Cross-stitch and simple embroidery patterns appeared in newspapers, and the working class found a way to embellish seed sacks and muslin. DMC, the international company that makes embroidery floss, has been in business since 1746. In the 1800s, when John Mercer invented mercerized cotton thread, DMC began working with Therese de Dillmont who founded a school that taught embroidery techniques. The quality and affordability of DMC floss extended the reputation and appreciation of hand work for pillows. DMC® Corporation began advertising in the United States in 1934.

Today, the elaborate hand work is copied by printing the designs on the fabric. Silk has become polyester. Wool has become acrylic. Pre-shaped and covered foam pillow forms are available in fabric stores for people who want to make their own decorative covers for throw pillows. The designer look in finished throw pillows is sold in discount stores as well as in high end shops. The rich still have their finer bed and accessory pillows. And, for the middle class, hand crafted has become a sentimental nice-to-have rather than a necessity.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillow
http://www.throwpillowsource.com/throw_pillow_history
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/04/04/pillow-history/
http://www.dmc-usa.com/majic/pageServer/0l01000019/en_US/History.html