When people during the turn of the century woke to the call of nature in the middle of the night, they wouldn’t necessarily want to go outdoors and use the bathroom. (Who wants to walk outside when it’s raining, snowing, cold and dark, after all?) Not in their “clean” nightgowns! Instead, whenever duty called, they simply pulled out their chamber pot, normally resting next to their bed! Chamber pots came in a variety of shapes and sizes and could be made from ceramic or metal. It actually was quite common for the chamber pot to even be part of a special chair called a “close stool,” which looked like an ordinary chair but, in fact, it’s hinged seat lifted up to reveal a chamber pot! Just like this piece pictured here. When people used the pot, they would toss the waste outside the next morning. People would empty their pots in a variety of convenient places: in a pit for just that purpose, into the nearest body of water, onto their vegetable garden as a fertilizer known as “night soil,” or just out the nearest window. Whatever was most convenient!