PLACES OF EASE, PLACES OF SOLITUDE:
Privy. Necessary. Outhouse. Place of Ease

Call them what you will, these outbuildings were both ubiquitous and essential before the development of indoor plumbing, long a familiar part of the built environment. In some ways these structures constituted small worlds of their own, islands of quiet and solitude.  

The Webb Deane Stevens Museum boasts a trio of local 18th century privies, all rescued from uncertain fates.  

Through the expert camera work of Connecticut photographer Peter Brown, we can now explore the privies through an artistic lens. The resulting study of shape and texture, light, and shadow, invites us to revisit these buildings and with them the connections to generations of people who built, used, and – in the end – saved them.