Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Circa 1898. "Dr. Beall 'old fashioned toilet seat'." No. 2 (so to speak) in a series. 5x7 glass negative from the C.M. Bell portrait studio in Washington. View full size.
What a definitely weird contraption.
I remember when I was younger that what my sister and I had when our parents were potty training us looked similar to that. Thankfully, as my parents love to jokingly tell us, we were quick learners. They were grateful for that diaper money going back into the budget!
Note that this is a different view of the "Dr. Beall 'old-fashioned chair" seen at https://www.shorpy.com/node/22222?size=_original#caption , only with the chamber pot removed and the seatcover folded down. Clever man, that Beall!
The Benjamin M. Beall Commode Chair, patent #601312, filed July 1, 1897 and granted March 29, 1898.
Apparently the bucket, porcelain pot, or whatever receptacle goes under the chair has been carefully scratched out of the negative.
My grandfather, whose farmhouse didn't have indoor plumbing until the mid-sixties, referred to these vessels with a rather colorful name.
You just KNOW someone would make that into a planter today
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5