| Sumario: | Lucy Maynard Salmon's book, Domestic Service, aimed to change the terms of the 'servant question' at the end of the nineteenth century by treating it as a serious economic and labour issue, worthy of scientific investigation. This article explores three key analytical contributions Salmon made to answering the question: how did domestic work come to be uniquely stigmatised in the context of the United States? I argue that her answer reveals an innovative analysis of social relationships as they relate to industrialisation, an early constructivist position on gender, and an illuminating tracking of the construction of racial difference and boundary making—the making of whiteness in particular—in the early Northeastern United States. By highlighting the analytical dimensions of Domestic Service, this article builds on the work of feminist historiographers who have shed light on Salmon's importance as an early social historian. Additionally, I draw on the insight of contemporary scholars of paid and unpaid household labour to suggest that understudied threads of her often-cited book extend Salmon's interdisciplinary relevance.
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