"It was a woman who threw a skin she had cured with her own hands on the floor of the rude tent to cover the stain of blood on the pounded clay made when the man slung the animal he had killed across the opening." So reads the opening page of this promotional literature—"Individuality in the Home: A Woman's Dream"—published by the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association in 1915 (flip or swipe through a digital version of it). Animal carcasses gave way to woven rugs and then carpet, and when women, having been delegated responsibility for the home's ornamentation by men, realized the hygienic problems with carpet, they deemed hardwood the best flooring option, so the story goes. It reads, "It is no wonder that our ancestors were stamped out by the thousands with the dread white plague when all those who could afford to commit suicide in that luxurious manner covered their floors with carpets." The marketing battle between carpet and hardwood continues in a more muted fashion, but at least today neither side is blaming the other of causing plague.
