In connection with Bloomsbury, an eighteenth-century tenant house site, we
surveyed the privy literature, because our site had none. We found two
chamberpots, and it looked as if an abandoned well had been used as a
disposal site for noxious waste for a short time.
 
We found plenty of upper-class sites of the eighteenth century with
privies. A nineteenth-century book on landscape architecture showed
middle-class houses with indoor plumbing but pit privies outside. One plan
from the 1880s showed bathrooms (for bathing) but an earth closet privy in
the house but accessed from outdoors, a sort of indoor outhouse.
 
More recently, here in Delaware, a typical installation was a valve closet
on the back porch, with bathing facilities indoors. A valve closet has no
standing water, so it can be allowed to freeze a little. I know of two such
setups from the early twentieth century. In both cases, there was a
bathroom and water closet indoors, but the valve closet was used instead of
the water closet. Valve closet toilets were cast iron contraptions with a
flapper valve at the bottom and a flusher that worked straight off the
pipe, with no float or tank.
 
For the lesser levels of society, privies were unknown until relatively
recently.
 
In a report from the Ozarks, we found mention of surface privies, backed up
to the chicken yard. The chickens would take care of cleaning the waste and
there was no need for a pit.
 
If you were watching Masterpiece Theater's presentation of Cecil Rhodes,
you undoubtedly saw the scene of the pit privy. The pit was surrounded by a
low rail, over which the bum was hung. In the show, a miner is shown
getting up from the privy bench, which is shown quite clearly. Most people
probably remember the fellow being thrown into the hole and did not look at
the seating arrangements.
 
A sizable essay on the literature of privies will be included in the
Bloomsbury report, to be published as soon as we get our act together. If
you want to get on the mailing list for the report, send your snail address
to the DelDOT archaeologist, Kevin Cunningham:
 
[log in to unmask]
 
In the meanwhile, the Bill Adams bibliography is the best available source.
It was my starting point. Great work, Bill.
 
 
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