Archive Entry
Bromo Toilet Paper Sheets from Diamond Mills Paper Company, London
Object/Artifact
This is a box of *sheets* of toilet paper made in England by the Diamond Mills Paper Company of London. From a seller's online description of an identical box of Bromo paper sheets: "The paper contained the “disinfectants and curatives” Bromo chloralum and carbolic acid, which the manufacturers’ claimed would “…render its use not only a positive preventive of that most distressing and almost universal complaint, the Piles, but also a thorough deodorizer and disinfectant of the water closet”. However common hemorrhoids were at the time, the flush toilet was certainly not standard in 1878 and the smells that would have developed in the non-flush version, particularly over a hot summer, would have needed all the help with deodorization that could be given.
The pack would have slotted neatly inside a wooden case which hung from a nail in the water closet wall, next to the toilet. A typical toilet paper polished wood case that would have held the box of individual sheets is illustrated on what is most likely a salesman’s sample sheet of ‘Globus’ paper..."
This same item is in the collection of the UK's National Trust. It is in our collection because of the memory of having read a history of Millburn's Diamond Mills Paper Company that said something like the company moved to England--possibly after being taxed for polluting the river in Millburn with dyes from their manufacturing process. It is also an everyday item that is seldom incorporated in talks on daily life in the late 1800's and early 1900's, presumably because of its relative rarity.
The box is soiled overall and all side of the box are creased. The lid has a ca. 1.5" tear along the edge that attaches to the box, on the right side as you face the front of the box and a ca. 1/2" tear at the same point on the left side as you face the box. The box is filled with tissue-paper-type, rectangular sheets of toilet paper. The donation date is just a guesstimate.
2010.099.001
2010.099
5-1/4 in
7-1/2 in