Black and white photo of the men's massage department in the Palace Bathhouse around 1900. The large room with dark wainscoting two-thirds up the wall with large patterned wall paper above and on the ceiling has several stations with various electro-therapy equipment and massage table. Counterclockwise from the right foreground there is a white man with a mustache on a massage table, covered by a sheet, with the masseur standing behind the table. The masseur is a young white man dressed in a white t-shirt and light colored pants. Next there is a man with a flowing silky robe sitting in front of a piece of electro-therapy equipment. Then there is a large glass enclosed cabinet on the wall with several things on shelves, possibly batteries. On the back wall, there is a curtain hanging that may be covering a doorway. Next there is a man wearing a white lab coat at a small table and sitting next to the table is a gentleman fully dressed with a coat and tie. In the left front there is an electrotherapy device on a stand.
Palace Bathhouse massage department including
electro-therapy, ca. 1900
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Originally called a "masseur" if you were male and a "masseuse" if you were female, those giving massage began to be called massage therapists in the 1960s. Because the work did not directly involve the hot spring water, the massage business was not monitored as closely as the baths in the early years.

We do not yet know exactly when massage services were added to the bathhouses in Hot Springs, but we do know that some bathhouses offered them by 1893. By the early 1900s, all bathhouses offered massage.
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