Life before air conditioning: How Americans used to keep cool during the summer before the invention of AC

Every year of the past decade has been the hottest since records have been kept, and there is a high likelihood of 2026 being the hottest yet. Fortunately, most Americans can find some relief with the flip of a switch. Nearly 90% of households and public buildings now have some form of air conditioning installed.

However, while the technology was developed in 1902, it would take decades for it to become a common feature in homes. While modern air conditioning has made life during the hot summer months more tolerable, our ancestors had ingenious methods of beating the heat.

Life before air conditioning

At least as far back as the Egyptians, it has been known that air flow is key to staying cool when the temperatures rise. Many of the techniques they used we still use today.

Using water to cool the air

For example, they would drape wet sheets across doorways and openings that would cool the air that flowed over them as it evaporated. Settlers dealing with the heat in the Wild West would sleep under wet sheets, Victorians would rely on the sweat soaking the underlayers of their clothing, and today we can use evaporative coolers, or swamp coolers, to achieve the same effect the Egyptians did.

Creating your own breeze

The ancients also used fans to keep themselves cool. While we don’t have slaves pulling cords to move palm leaves hanging from the ceiling these days, similar contraptions were used up until the electrification of homes when they were replaced by ceiling fans. Also, battery-free hand fans were all the rage after they were imported from Asia and are still used today.

Cooling a house is all in the design

House design also played an important role in ensuring proper ventilation and airflow through a house. Structures were built with tall windows oriented to catch prevailing breezes. As well doors on the front and back of the building were aligned and a central hall so that a wind-tunnel effect could be created.

Since heat rises, ceilings were raised ever higher with 10 feet becoming the norm, along with a central open staircase that sometimes was capped with a belvedere or cupola with windows or vents which acted like a chimney and let the hot air escape.

Getting outdoors but staying out of the sunlight

Verandas, roofed, open-air porches, were also a common feature of homes in the past. When their wasn’t a breath of air moving indoors or it just became to stuffy inside, these provide some relief and protection from the heat of the Sun.

Clothing and accessories also play a part in keeping us cool. Women used to carry, and some still do, parasols to shade them from the sun as they walked down the street. Likewise, both women and men still wear specially designed hats to provide a personally patch of shade.

As for clothing, now as then, it is common for people to switch to lighter colored apparel in the summer. But whether it’s white or black, what is more important is that it breathes so that the heat can be pulled away from your body.

If the night gets too hot, it’s time to camp out

Normally, people look forward to the night to get some relief from the dog days of summer, but during extreme heatwaves there often isn’t even respite then. People in the past had no other option than to sleep outdoors, including U.S. presidents notes History.

Just as in the past, even today you may see people who don’t have AC sleeping on their balconies, rooftops, or verandas if the mercury doesn’t drop in the night.

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