This brass bed warmer at the Peace field estate blends family history with smart colonial design. Elizabeth Quincy Smith gave it to her newlywed daughter, Abigail Adams, in 1764. It served as both a meaningful keepsake and an essential tool for freezing New England winters.1
The bed warmer has a long wooden handle attached to a round brass pan with a hinged lid. Copper rivets attach the pan to its lid. The pan’s shiny surface features a swirling design. Inside the center circle reads, “Abigail Adams, 25th October, 1764,” marking John and Abigail's wedding date.
While useful, these tools required great care. Six small air holes let the heat out but restricted oxygen to keep the coals from flaring. The extra-long handle kept users at a safe distance as they reached toward far corners of the bed. This was important because these warmers could easily spark dangerous bedroom fires. This wooden handle is a modern replacement, but the original would have looked almost identical. For convenience, families simply hung the pan by the fireplace when not in use.
Abigail Adams struggled through many cold winters. On December 25, 1796, she wrote to John:
“Was it ever colder in this Country. The glasses have fallen much below 0… Many people froze their feet, hands and ears.”2
On bitter Massachusetts nights, Abigail prepared for bed much differently than we do today. While we rely on modern climate control to keep our homes cozy, colonial indoor temperatures could plunge below freezing overnight. Before climbing under the blankets, she would fill the pan with hot coals and carefully slide it between the sheets. Slowly shifting the pan with the long handle, the heated metal warmed the bed.
Abigail mentioned the warmer in a letter to John between September 14-16, 1774. John was attending the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She wrote:
“How warm your climate may be I know not, but I have had my bed warmed these two nights.”3
Over time, the object became a cherished family heirloom. Brooks Adams, the great-grandson of Abigail and John, displayed it in the 1826 hallway at Peace field. After the Adams Memorial Society assumed stewardship of the estate in 1927, they returned the warming pan to its original location. Visitors can still see it today, where it continues to tell the story of daily colonial life and family traditions.
Dimensions: The wooden handle is 80 cm [31 ½”] long. The copper pan measures 28 cm [11”] in diameter and 8.9 cm [3 ½”] in depth.
At time of posting, this object is available to view on a guided tour of Peace field. Tours are offered during our season (May 1 – November 15) and ticket reservations must be made in-person at the Adams NHP Visitor Center.
- Wilhelmina S. Harris, Historic Furnishings Report of the Old House, Adams National Historic Site, Quincy, Massachusetts, Vol. V (1966–1968) (Washington, DC: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior), 490-1.
- Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 25 December 1796 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society.
- Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 14 September 1774 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society.