In Alaska we deal with much later time periods than this original request, but I
do have a couple of sources to share that are kind of fun:
A fun book, with lots of photos: The Vanishing American Outhouse: Privy Plans,
Photographs, Poems and Folklore by Ronald S. Barlow, Windmill Publishing Co., El
Cajon, California 1992. Windmill's address is: 2147 Windmill View Rd, El Cajon
CA 92020. It says that copies can be purchased for $15.95 plus 2.00
postage/handling.
In Alaska, outhouses are alive and well in rural areas (perhaps it is just a
Euro-American thing, but just about all the outhouses in Alaska are rural
because so few of these places have running water). A small book with numerous
photos and vignettes about modern Alaskan outhouses: Outhouses of Alaska, by
Harry M. Walker, Epicenter Press, Seattle/Fairbanks, 1996.
In Skagway, I have excavated numerous 1897-ca. 1930 privy sites. One had a
chamberpot (plain WW, very boring unlike the many decorated ones I see in Sears
or MW catalogs) thrown in on the top of the deposit, perhaps in celebration of
finally getting indoor plumbing?
Happy "pot hunting"!
Doreen Cooper, Project Archeologist
Klondike Gold Rush NHP
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