A few days ago we were driving near Boonsboro in Maryland. We passed a couple of nice barns and Claire remarked that they should be painted red — they were both white. Well, that got me to thinking — when we’re driving, a lot, if not most, barnes we see are painted red. You’ve probably guessed by now that this is a subject that just begs for some of my extensive research.
Turns out, barn paint is an interesting subject. Many years ago, farmers didn’t have a choice for paints or sealers and had to be resourceful in finding (or — usually — making) a paint that would protect and seal the wood on their barns. Hundreds of years ago, many farmers would seal their barns with linseed oil, which is an orange-colored oil derived from the seed of the flax plant. They usually mixed milk and lime to the oil, but also ferrous oxide. (Ferrous oxide is basically just rust.) Rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, it was a very effective sealant. When mixed with the linseed oil, it turned the mixture red in color. Years later, when paint became more available, many farmers chose red paint for their barns because of tradition.
My research could have ended there, but it was a slow day and I dug a little deeper. Another theory as to the red color claimed that, farmers (especially rich farmers) mixed the linseed-oil/milk/lime concoction with blood from a recent slaughter. As the paint dried, it turned from a bright red to a darker, burnt red. (Actually, the term “barn red” isn’t the bright, fire-engine red that we often see today — it’s more of a burnt-orange red.) At any rate, no matter how a farmer tinted his paint, having a red barn became a fashionable thing.
Now I should mention that the road in Maryland we were driving on is known as the Old National Pike. My research uncovered the fact that while red barns are still a tradition in most US farming regions, white barns are the norm along the Old National Pike. One reasonable explanation that the red barn tradition never took root along that path is because the road made freight, including white lead, accessible to nearby farmers. Basically, lead paint simply wasn’t available in most rural areas before the 1880s except in very narrow corridors with good transportation (like the Old National Pike.)
So red barns were originally red for a reason — seems like everything is more interesting when you know the “rest of the story.”
— 30 —