Hello all,
 
Our firm conducted a survey at a century farmstead in southern Minnesota   last fall.  We identified and excavated two privies; one dating to the   turn of the century, ca. 1890-1910, and one dating to the 1940's to   1960's.  The farmstead has been in the same family since it was   homesteaded in 1856.
 
I have two requests for information:
 
1.  We are interested in any other sites that have had privies excavated   that date to the turn-of-the-century.  We would like to do some   comparisons, not only of rural privies in different areas of the country,   but also comparison's of rural and urban privies.  So, if anybody has   references to articles, books, etc. discussing turn-of-the-century   privies, I would be very interested!
 
2. Also, we found most of a bottle that contained DURFEE / EMBALMING   FLUID in the earlier of the two privies and have heard of many uses for   it such as: embalming (the obvious one), disinfectant for the privy,   preservative in home canning, and disinfectant for animals on the farm.    I was wondering if anybody has any references to embalming fluid being   used for any of the more unusual purposes, or a good reference for rural   embalming practices (one member of the family did die in a farm accident   in 1914 and was "in state" at the farm before he was buried)?
 
Thanks in advance!
 
Holly P. Halverson
BRW, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
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