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A 1943 Household Flush-Ration Card

A 1943 household flush-ration card, four of its thirteen weekly coupons spent and nine still attached, catalogued with its provenance and its condition.

A toned wartime ration card on a cream museum mount, a printed grid of perforated weekly coupons partly torn away, a worn issuing-office seal at one corner.

Accession no. NMDP 1943.076

Object: household flush-ration card, printed card stock, coupons partly detached. Credit line: Collection of the National Museum of the Digestive Past.

Provenance

Issued in 1943 under wartime load management, the card allotted a single household its weekly flushes, and was presented — its coupons surrendered — at the metered fixture. This example was issued to a household of four and used through the fourth week of a thirteen-week quarter, after which the coupons stop. Whether the household moved, was reallocated, or simply held its water, the card does not say.

A wartime ration card under glass showing a grid of coupons, four torn away and nine remaining, with a faint corner seal.
Fig. 1 —Recto. Four weekly coupons detached, nine intact; the seal is worn nearly smooth.

Condition report

The card stock is toned and soft at the folds; nine of the thirteen weekly coupons remain attached, their perforations intact. A thumb has worn the issuing-office seal nearly smooth. The reverse carries a printed schedule of permitted flushing hours and a line reserving unrestricted use for medical necessity, initialed by no one.

Curatorial note

The Museum holds a great many things that were meant to be used up and were not. This card is one of them, kept for the four weeks it records and the nine it declined to spend.