Object of the Month

Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site has a large museum collection consisting of thousands of objects, many of which are not regularly displayed in the house's furnished exhibit rooms. Every month, an object will be featured on this page, providing a look at an unusual piece from the collection.

July’s object of the month is an exterior feature on the west side of the Longfellow House. It is an underground garbage receiver, installed in the early 1900s when Alice Longfellow was the house’s primary resident. The garbage receiver’s location a few steps away from the exterior kitchen door is a good indicator of its purpose.

During the early 20th century, the terms garbage and rubbish meant very different things. Garbage generally referred to food waste, including fruit and vegetable peelings, bones, fish skins, grease from cooking, and other food scraps prone to decomposition. Rubbish was a category covering dry waste, such as glass, paper, and rubber, and could also include bulky items like furniture. Before the widespread use of plastic trash bags in the 1960s it was necessary to separate garbage from rubbish, and this is where the underground garbage receiver came in.

The underground garbage receiver’s construction consisted of a removable metal bucket housed in a metal-lined concrete cylinder topped with a heavy hinged metal lid that opened with the use of a foot pedal and closed itself automatically. Its placement underground kept the garbage cooler which helped limit foul smells, especially in the summer months, and prevented freezing in the winter. The metal and concrete construction was meant to be durable and impenetrable to pests, especially rats and flies. Garbagemen would collect the garbage on a regular schedule, lifting out the interior bucket and emptying the contents into a truck for disposal.

Underground garbage receivers were made by several companies in the early 20th century, including the Majestic Company of Huntington, Indiana, the F.B. Jones Manufacturing Company of Somerville, Massachusetts and in this case the C.H. Stephenson Company of Lynn, Massachusetts. The last patent number molded on this piece dates to 1907. C.H. Stephenson advertised their products heavily during the 1910s in magazines, emphasizing the improved sanitary conditions that the underground garbage receiver offered over traditional swill buckets. At one point the company even published a multi-page story centering on a romantic relationship between two neighbors that was helped along through the purchase of one of the company’s garbage receptacles! Unfortunately, we have no record of Alice Longfellow’s thoughts on the sanitary or social benefits of having her C.H. Stephenson product.

Click here to view past Objects of the Month.