JF Ptak Science Books: The Beauty of Public Restrooms (1908)

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The History of Ideas Blog by John Ptak is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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The Beauty of Public Restrooms (1908)

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

The pamphlet's title was both pre-forgettable and irresistible: "Public Comfort Stations for Saint Louis". It was published in 1908 in plain vanilla wrappers by the Civic League of St. Louis, though the title has little cadence and does not lend itself to poetry (not many good words rhyme with "ouis") and is way too rich in blocky syllables for haiku. The pleasant surprise in this little package were the unexpected photographs and plans of Worldwide Restrooms, which for reasons that require no explanation I decided to reproduce below.