April 24, 2008
NY Historical Society brings epidemic to life in 'Cholera'
NewYorkology contributor Christina Ziegler-McPherson is a public historian in one of New York's "sixth boroughs" -- Hoboken, New Jersey. A specialist in American immigration and social welfare policy, she regularly crosses the river to partake of New York's many historical sites, institutions, and events. She's the author of the upcoming book "Americanization in the States: Immigrant Social Welfare Policy, Citizenship, and National Identity in the United States, 1908-1929."
The New York Historical Society’s new exhibit, “Plague in Gotham!: Cholera in Nineteenth-Century New York” is a good example of how small can be beautiful. Packed compactly into two-thirds of a long wall in the Society’s Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, “Plague in Gotham!” tells the story of the first cholera epidemic in New York City in 1832.
With just a few strategically selected items – a map, city health broadsides, homeopathetic remedies, gruesome portraits of victims and other artifacts – the exhibit details how New Yorkers confronted a terrifying disease that killed 3,515 people (out of a total population of 250,000) in the summer of 1832.
Cholera, a gastrointestinal bacterial disease spread by contaminated water and food, causes severe diarrhea; death can occur within a few hours if dehydration is not properly treated. But the cause of cholera was unknown in the early 19th century, and theories ranged from “miasmas” (noxious fumes created by rotting organic matter) to immorality and alcohol consumption.
Poor New Yorkers lived in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, and so died of a wide variety of contagious and water-borne diseases at a much higher rate than wealthier residents. This higher death rate on the part of African-Americans and Irish immigrants in the 1832 epidemic led to theories emphasizing individual morality and behavior.
The Society has also developed a cholera blog, which includes an audio clip from historian Kenneth Jackson and a Google map of 19th Century cholera hotspots in NYC.
The “Plague in Gotham!” exhibit is part of New York’s first annual World Science Festival, which runs May 28 through June 1.
Although the “Plague in Gotham!” exhibit is small and ends June 29, the Historical Society has four other exhibits that make a visit worthwhile this spring: “French Founding Father: Lafayette’s Return to Washington’s America,” documents the Revolutionary War general’s tour of the U.S. in 1824-1825 and runs until August 10. “Allure of the East: Orientalism in New York, 1850-1930,” and “Woven Splendor from Timbuktu to Tibet: Exotic Rugs and Textiles from New York Collectors,” which run until August 17, show Americans’ fascination with the Middle East through painting, some beautiful Tiffany silver, and a great ensemble of carpets and other textiles collected by the Hajji Baba Club. With “Nature and the American Vision,” the Historical Society continues to exhibit its collection of paintings by artists of the Hudson River School; that exhibit continues until January 16, 2009.
Image credits: Notice. Preventives of Cholera! Published by order of the Sanatory Committee, under the sanction of the Medical Counsel (New York, 1849)
Augustine E. Costello, Map of the Collect [Pond] from Our Firemen: A History of the New York Fire Departments, Volunteer and Paid. (New York: the author, 1887).
Both provided by NYHS to NewYorkology.
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April 24, 2008 12:48 PM in History, Maps, Museums, Sightsology, Upper West Side
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