Over 600,000 visitors tour Fort McHenry each year. Many of them ask questions about the everyday life of the soldiers who served their country here. People are very interested in knowing what people wore, what they ate, where they slept, and a frequently asked question is where they went to the bathroom!

Chamber Pot Height: 4¼" Diameter: Inside - 6", Outside - 9" Date: Mid - 1800's

The chamber pot shown here provides an example of the type of container used by people who lived in the Fort in the 1800's. Plumbing for indoor bathrooms was not installed in the Fort until the city water lines were installed in the 1890's. Prior to that time, the men who lived in the Fort used the privies during the day and the chamber pots during the night. Before the Civil War, slaves in service of the officers were responsible for removing the chamber pots each morning. After the abolition of slavery, the lower ranking servicemen would perform this task for the higher ranking officers.

In May, 1980, a team of archeologists under project manager, Bryan Aivazian, conducted an excavation at the site of the privies in the Star Fort. The researchers hoped to examine artifacts and material from the privies that would provide more information about the daily living habits of the soldiers. They excavated the privies used by the officers and the enlisted men to provide a comparison of living habits.

This chamber pot was recovered 100" below the surface of the ground where the officers' privy was located. For the location of the excavation, see the site base map. It was found in 19 individual pieces. Researchers carefully mended the pieces back together. The main body of the bowl has a design of raised ridges with a flat projecting rim. The handle on the right side has a decorative leaf design. The ceramic material is an off-white color. There are no identification marks on the base, which means it was probably issued by the military.* This pot was found in the privy used by the officers and decorative design indicates that it would have been used by the higher ranked soldier. The military issued completely simple, plain white pots to the enlisted men.

Life for a soldier in the military in the 1800's was anything but elegant and glamorous. Few artifacts remain to tell the story of the most basic aspects of everyday life. In many instances, only archeological pieces that are mended together to form a whole object, remain to tell the rest of the story!

* References:
Bragonier, Reginald .

What's What, A Visual Glossary of the Physical World. Maplewood, New Jersey: Hammond Publishing, Inc., 1981.

Catalog number: FOMC 12493, Accession number: FOMC 185.