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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