Dear Folks:
People in the 19th century did use outhouses both in the country and the city. I recall one very fancy one at Drayton Hall just outside of Charleston. It was an ornately decorated brick structure about the size of a small smoke house with a common wooden seat with 3 holes side by side. Of course common folks would just have a wooden outhouse and not be as fancy. Women's "unmentionables" aka underwear, had a large slit in the crotch area of the bloomers which facilitated going to the bathroom with hoops on. The hoops are quite flexible and one can get pretty skilled at scooping up one's skirts and bending the hoops forward to get them out of the way if one is sitting on the privy. If one is out in nature, all that is needed is to squat and go ;-)!! As a 19th century living historian I can vouch for how this works ;-))! Men would go in the woods as they do now, the only difference being it would take longer as zippers don't get invented until the 1920s and they would have to unbutton both trousers and sometimes underwear when going behind the tree. If one is doing # 2, that is a bit more of a challenge, as one needs to find something to sit on to facillitate nature's urges. There is a wonderful contemporary book entitled "How to S--- in the Woods" which is handy for folks who commune with nature away from modern conveniences. The author as I recall calls it a "lost art" ;-0!
Anita L. Henderson
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 1 May 2007 12:07 PM
Subject: Re: Before the Portable Toilet
They went behind a tree.
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ronald Whitaker
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 11:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Before the Portable Toilet
Sound like a thesis topic to me! Thanks, Brent.
--One wonders how the process was achieved for the ladies adorned in hoop
skirts and layers of garments often required by fashion. That would seem
quite a chose in a facility, but in the woods......?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brent Tarter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 10:36 AM
Subject: Before the Portable Toilet
I noticed yesterday that in preparation for the Thursday visit of Queen
Elizabeth to Richmond the grounds staff has placed more than 75 bright
blue and green portable toilets in Capital Square, where a large crowd
is expected. They add a dash of color to the scene, but I am not sure
that on they whole they classify as a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
I wonder, though, for all the centuries before portable toilets, what
corresponding preparations got made for large, protracted gatherings of
people at such events as revival meetings, political rallies, and the
like. Several thousand people spent the day on Jamestown Island in May
1857 celebrating the first settlement of the colony, for instance, but
accounts of that event that I have seen mention speaking and eating and
drinking but nothing else.
I suppose that people researching such events may have encountered some
references to that important subject, even though once upon a time it
might have been regarded as improper to mention it. Students of social
history or public health may also have knowledge of this subject, but I
confess that I do not recall seeing any references at all.
Perhaps somebody out there can satisfy our purely empirical curiosity
about that part of the past.
Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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Visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us
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