STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep with the smell of history. Philadelphia's Museum of the American Revolution opens next year. It has an earthenware mug from the 1770s which still smells of rum poured by some revolutionary drinker. Luckily, other early American smells cannot be recaptured. A book on the country's early years says before running water, even the most fastidious people bathed only once a week. Some bathed once a year, whether they needed it or not. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.