Bath Chair

History

Arguably the first modern wheelchair, this device was invented by John Dawson of Bath in 1798. Bath chairs were usually three-wheelers, with one at the front and two at the back. They needed to be pushed by an attendant and were apparently popular in locations such as Bath and Leamington Spa in the nineteenth century as many affluent disabled people flocked to these placed due to their supposed healing effects. For more on wheelchairs in the nineteenth century, see Karen Bourrier’s chapter “Mobility Impairments: From the Bath Chair to the Wheelchair” in A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century, edited by Joyce L. Huff and Martha Stoddard Holmes (Bloomsbury, 2020).