Vol. V, No. 3, 2019

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A collectible postcard from the the early decades of the 20th century depicting our lighthouse. It was one of 50 in the Light House Series sponsored by Hassan Cork Tip Cigarettes. See “Postcards from the Penitentiary (and Other Blackwell’s Island Sites),” p. 9.

Vol. V, No. 3, 2019

Who Is the Woman in the Iron Coffin? by MandaLeigh Blunt

Scott Warnasch, a veteran of the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, took to the Roosevelt Island Library

on June 13, 2017 to discuss the Woman in the Iron Coffin. Not only did he discuss the forensic science

used in recovering and analyzing the 150-year-old cast iron coffin and its inhabitant; he also explained the

uniqueness of the find that made it possible to glean the life and personality of this young woman and the community in

which she lived.

America in the 1840s was a nation powered by ambition, imagination, and iron. Iron in particular became the “heart and lungs” of the Steam Age, as it made the locomotive and steam engine possible. People were no longer destined to be born, live, and die in the same town as the rest of their family had for generations. “Go West, Young Man” was more than a saying; it held a promise of adventure and prosperity. Unfortunately, it also held hardships and disease; often many of these travelers passed away surrounded by strangers instead of loved ones. How then would family members be able to say goodbye to their loved ones? Especially if it was a serious and contagious affliction such as cholera or smallpox that led to their demise.

Enter Almond Dunbar Fisk, a stove manufacturer, who in 1843 came up with an answer. Using what he had learned about stoves and furnace construction, he and William Raymond designed the Iron Coffin: a sarcophagus-like capsule that could transport bodies safely across the country to be buried in family plots. The craftsmanship and artistry of these iron coffins were so lauded, rich and famous Americans flocked to this new trend. Dolly Madison purchased one for her husband, but then circumstances decreed that she wound up buried in it herself.

So who was this woman, found in Elmhurst, Queens, buried in such a work of art? And how was she ultimately identified?

The Original Discovery In 2011, a vacant lot was the subject of negotiations for development of an office building. A backhoe was leveling the lot when it unearthed what was thought to be a recent murder

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Contents

P. 2 Who Is the Woman in the Iron Coffin? by MandaLeigh Blunt

P. 5 The Hart Island Project

P. 8 Remembering Nellie Bly

P. 9 RI Inspires the Visual Arts: Postcards from the Penitentiary (and Other Blackwell’s Island Sites)

P. 12 More Julia Gash Merchandise at the Visitor Center

P. 13 RIHS Calendar; Become a Member and Support RIHS

Blackwell’s Almanac

Published quarterly in February, May, August and November. Back issues may be viewed at rihs.us. Click on Blackwell’s Almanac at left.

Publisher: Judith Berdy

Writer/editor: Bobbie Slonevsky

Contributing writer: MandaLeigh Blunt

© 2019, Roosevelt Island Historical Society

Vol. V, No. 3, 2019

victim. Scott Warnasch and his team of forensic archeologists were called in to investigate what was supposed to be a “pretty straightforward” job. But he soon realized, based on fragments found at the scene, that the woman was not a recent murder victim at all, but someone who had died of smallpox in the 1850s. She was so well preserved because she was sealed and buried in a Fisk & Raymond iron coffin.

The Forensic Analysis Because the woman had died of smallpox, but was so well preserved, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) was immediately notified so that they could determine if the spores were still active and in danger of spreading (a serious notion since the U.S. had eradicated smallpox in the 1970s, and thus vaccinations for the disease had become a thing of the past).

Further analysis concluded that the smallpox DNA was no longer active, so an outbreak of smallpox was no longer a worry. Warnasch and his team were therefore free to get to work on analyzing the person before them. They performed

digital body scans, reassembled the iron coffin (which was heavily damaged thanks to the backhoe) and took a forensic look at the clothing in which she was buried. They concluded that she was an African-American woman in her mid-twenties, who was taken care of and loved by her community. This was evident in the clothes she was wearing, a darned chemise and special burial shroud; in her hair, which was pulled back in organized twists with a decorative and well maintained hair comb; and in her nails, which were filed and shaped. A woman in the feverish throws of smallpox would not have had the wherewithal or inclination to do her hair or file her nails; so it was concluded that she had had caregivers who took good care of her in her final days.

The Research The lot where she was discovered is located on Corona Avenue in Elmhurst, Queens, which in the 1850s was called Newtown. The land was originally purchased by a group of freed slaves for the purpose of building the first African-American church and school in New York, which were in the charge of former slave and famous abolitionist Reverend James Pennington. The land changed hands and denominations a few times over the next hundred years, and when the church finally changed locations, the land was sold and became the site of an office building. As is the case with so many New York City buildings, it was soon demolished and the land reverted to a bare lot. However, the fact that the land was originally purchased around the same time the coffin had been manufactured and the woman had lived and died, furnished a significant clue as to her identity.

Looking at the 1850 census, the first to thoroughly list residents by name, age, gender, and race, Warnasch narrowed the

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Scott Warnasch and the iron coffin.

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possibilities to 33 women who had lived in the area and fit his forensic deductions. There was one woman whose name seemed to connect all the dots within his investigation and “came as close to a smoking gun as you can get for the early 19th century.”

The Identity Her name was Martha Peterson, daughter of John and Jane Peterson, born in Newtown, Queens in 1824 and deceased in 1851 at the age of 26 from smallpox.

John Peterson was one of the men who had purchased the land and was considered one of the more prominent figures in the community. Martha is listed in the census as living with and working for William Raymond, brother-in-law and business partner of Almond Fisk, aka the creators of the Iron Coffin. Fisk had purchased and lived on farmland one mile from the church, and Martha worked there as a “domestic.” She also had hammer-toes, which, Warnasch deduced, were from pointed shoes that were perhaps too small for her. It was further concluded that Martha was buried in this iron coffin, not specifically because she was infected with smallpox, but as a sign of respect for her and her relationship to the Raymond family. The coffin was likely donated or sold at a heavy discount to the Petersons, as this particular coffin was discovered to have an

inverted patent seal and was thus unsellable. Martha Peterson in the 21st Century Forensic imaging specialist Joe Mullins was able to create a digital image based on

Martha’s remaining bone structure to show what she could have looked like. This made her seem, as a member of the current church congregation put it, “one of the family.” Just as Martha had had a supportive community caring for her during her life and in her final

days, the community came together again for Martha to aid her in her final rest at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. November 7th has even been named Martha Peterson Day.

Speaker Warnasch has appeared in the PBS documentary Secrets of the Dead: The Woman in the Iron Coffin (Season 16, episode 6, available to stream online), and is currently working on a book about this journey. He told members of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society that what he finds most interesting and rewarding about this work is “putting a face with history, breaking assumptions of this time and place in history, and seeing them as people.” For more information on Scott Warnasch, please visit his website at www.ironcoffinmummy.com.

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A digital reconstruction demonstrates how Martha might have looked. Credit: Forensic artist Joe Mullins.

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The Hart Island Project One mile east of City Island in the Bronx, at the mouth of Long Island Sound, lies a small piece of land (approximately one mile long by 1/3 of a mile wide) that most New Yorkers have never heard of. It is Hart Island.

Over the last 150 years, the island has served many functions and held many institutions: It was the site of a Union civil war camp, a prison for Confederate soldiers, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a women’s insane asylum, a boys’ reformatory and workhouse, a Nike missile launch station, and a Phoenix House rehab facility. It is best known, though (when known at all), as a “potter’s field”—a cemetery for the poor, homeless and unclaimed. In fact, with a history of more than one million burials, it is the largest tax-funded cemetery in the world.

And therein lie a tale and a humanitarian project that have been the passion of artist Melinda Hunt for several decades. In May of this year she shared those stories with our residents as part of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society’s series of Library Talks.

Honoring the Fallen Soldier When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in November 1863 (four months after the battle took place), his purpose was to consecrate the battleground as a burial site and to honor the common soldiers interred there. While the site did not become a national cemetery until years later, it sparked important changes in burial practices. Of necessity, the speaker explained, fallen

soldiers had to be buried quickly, usually in mass graves that, except for handwritten ledgers, obliterated the names of their occupants. At the end of the Civil War, using personal items found on the bodies, the United States embarked on a program of disinterment, identification and reburial that redefined the nation’s obligation to its war-dead. It ultimately influenced municipal burials as well, including those in New York City.

The U.S. Sanitary Commission, based in Bellevue Hospital, introduced photography, ledgers and provisional burial practices designed to help reconnect the dead with their families. The Common Council passed Sanitary Codes that prohibited the opening of new burial grounds in New York County. Potter’s Field on Ward’s Island closed and a new City Cemetery opened on Hart Island one year after New York City

purchased it in 1868. Thomas S. Brennan, Commissioner of Charities and Corrections, set up a morgue where bodies could be identified or, if unidentified, could be

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Why “Potter’s Field?” The term, today meaning a cemetery for indigent or unclaimed persons, is taken from a biblical reference in the Book of Matthew. After Judas hanged himself, the money he was paid for his betrayal troubled the temple elders. So they decided to use it to make a cemetery for strangers. They proceeded to buy land from a potter.

In New York City, these designated burial areas have actually served to preserve open space for recreational use. Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park and even Bryant Park behind the Main Branch of the Public Library were all potter’s fields first, then became public parks.

City Cemetery burial ledger of the first burials in common graves 1872–1875. Municipal Archives City of New York. Photo courtesy The Hart Island Project.

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photographed, so that inquiring families could later find their loved ones and order disinterment. In addition, the very first medical examiner in all of North America was installed on East 26th Street to carry out post-mortem examinations.

From there, unclaimed corpses were taken to the “dead house,” a storage facility adjoining Bellevue’s 26th Street dock, where they were placed in crude pine coffins and transported by ferry to Hart Island. Most of the transport, grave-digging and burial work was done by inmates from the Blackwell’s Island penitentiary or workhouse, just as it is done today by those incarcerated for misdemeanors on Riker’s Island.

City Cemetery in Modern Times “Most of these workers are young men of color who receive no training or preparation for the task,” Hunt said. Nevertheless, they do the best they can. Based on another post-Civil War innovation, they dig common trenches to hold 150 adult coffins, a much more efficient system than individual graves. Each box has a number carved into it, in addition to which the grave-workers write the names of the occupants in magic marker. This information along with the plot number is entered into the daily burial record. Like their 19th century counterparts, the young men may also observe some sort of spontaneous commemoration—a prayer, perhaps, or a simple farewell.

During the AIDS epidemic, a new population was added to the cemetery—thousands of babies and adults who died of the disease. They at first were buried in individual graves in order to prevent contagion. But when officials realized their assumption was incorrect, the system reverted to common graves. As with all infants, the common trench holds 1,000 coffins.

If you live in New York City and don’t want to pay for a burial, or if a private funeral director is not chosen, the city will bury the deceased for free. Interment is considered an essential service just like the provision of water. Unlike private plots, however, the grave can be re-used after 25 years when, it is assumed, the body will have decomposed.

The speaker was adamant that this system of burial is more environmentally sound than cremation, which gives off toxic effluvia. Burial, she insisted, is natural and once the grave is closed, it is beautified with plantings and trees. Birds and wildlife add to the splendor…if only the site were properly managed.

Trouble in Paradise Prompts the Project From 1966 to 1976, the last living institutions on Hart Island (a branch of the Blackwell’s/Welfare Island workhouse/jail for juvenile offenders and the Phoenix House facility) closed, leaving more space for the dead. In 1968, the Department of Corrections (DOC)

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Top: Workhouse boys unloading the “dead house” wagon actually lived on Hart Island doing the same work inmates from Riker’s Island do today. Jacob Riis Collection. Courtesy Museum of the City of New York. Bottom: In addition to numbers carved into the coffins, names are written in magic marker. © 1992 Joel Sternfeld. Courtesy The Hart Island Project.

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assumed full control of the island by default because, even after the workhouse/jail closed in 1966, the Parks Department refused to accept jurisdiction. The burial process has remained the same, but a number of problems have arisen under the DOC’s direction.

The first is erosion. Cliff and shoreline erosion has been a particular problem, with human remains surfacing on beaches and in Long Island Sound. Then Hurricane Sandy exacerbated the problem, causing enormous damage and shifting of remains. Until recently, the DOC denied there was

a problem. But photography and funding from the Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have furnished evidence to the contrary. Repair work will begin later this year.

A far more intractable problem is the Department’s high-handed refusal to provide access to either burial records or the island itself. What had, for virtually 100 years, been a system dedicated to reconnecting families with their deceased became an obstacle to that very goal.

How did Melinda Hunt become involved? Her interest in Hart Island, she admitted, began in 1991 simply as an artistic endeavor: she wanted to re-photograph images that had appeared in Jacob Riis’s famous book “How the Other Half Lives.” After she and collaborator Joel Sternfeld published their photographic collection, titled “Hart Island,” people began contacting her for help gaining access to the island as well as to burial records. “I had already arranged for one mother to visit her child’s grave in 1994,” she said. And a later FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request resulted in the very first set of records for a database and a searchable website (www.hartisland.net). Since then the interactive website has been expanded to include more burial data, GPS mapping of burial sites and the incredibly compelling personal stories added by users.

The DOC still will not allow people to visit except for one Saturday each month or unless legally compelled by an attorney. Committed to defending the right of anyone to visit a grave, especially one on public land, Hunt was instrumental in the introduction of

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Civil-War era cistern exposed through shoreline erosion. © 2018 Greg Gulbransen. Courtesy The Hart Island Project.

Hart Island’s beautiful pastoral setting will, hopefully one day soon, be both a burial site and public park: Credit: Daniel Herbert & Parker Gyokeros © 2018 The Hart Island Project.

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legislation, first in 2012, again in 2014, and finally in 2018, to transfer island jurisdiction to the Department of Parks and Recreation (Parks). A fifth contentious hearing on the subject was held in City Hall on May 30 of this year: City Council Speaker Corey Johnson demanded that public access expand immediately in response to Parks’

claim that the transition will take eight to ten years and require closing City Cemetery.

Nevertheless, Hunt is hopeful that, one day soon, City Cemetery will both remain open for burials and become a public park; people will be free to visit its rural environment at will; and the stories of its forgotten buried will come to vibrant life.

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Remembering Nellie Bly The name should be familiar (see Blackwell’s Almanac Vol. II, No. 3). She was the courageous young lady journalist who, posing as mentally ill, spent 10 days undercover in the Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum in order to write an exposé for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Now, 132 years after that 1887 investigative coup, New York is paying memorial tribute.

“10 Days in a Madhouse,” the MusicalThis full-length, off-Broadway stage production will premier throughout January 2021 at the Players Theater NYC in Greenwich Village (MacDougal and Bleecker Streets). Written and scored by MandaLeigh Blunt (the same person who authored this issue’s “Who Is the Woman in the Iron Coffin”), the play reflects Bly’s galvanizing six-part newspaper report and her later book of the same title in which she condemns the horrific conditions in the asylum and conveys the harrowing details of her survival. Tickets will be available soon.

A Monument Near the Building She InfiltratedBly’s reportage on one of the most notorious institutions of its day was seminal in prompting reform of the era’s inhumane psychiatric care. After her initial success, she continued to advocate for other voiceless elements of society, most of whom were women. In celebration of this hero of women’s activism, RIOC has announced a Call for Artists (https://rioc.ny.gov/448/Call-for-Artists) to create a memorial and has budgeted up to $500,000. It is anticipated that the monument will be completed and unveiled sometime in May 2020. It will be sited somewhere in the vicinity of the Octagon—the original scene of Bly’s internment.

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RI Inspires the Visual Arts:

Postcards from the Penitentiary (and Other Blackwell’s Island Sites)

Believe it or not, picture postcards—that ubiquitous tourist perennial—did not exist before 1870. That year an entrepreneurial soul created a supply of souvenir cards from a French military camp in the province of Brittany. Their purpose was to commemorate the camp’s participation in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. While those cards were probably sent in envelopes, the year 1873 saw the development of the first U.S. pre-stamped “penny postcards” intended to provide an easy way to send a quick note. And the phenomenon caught on.

According to historian, graphic designer and urban archivist Miriam Berman, who shared the New York Public Library podium on April 18, 2019 with RIHS President Judith Berdy, “Pioneer” postcards, those produced prior to 1898, featured images and were used for correspondence, souvenirs, advertising and other business activities. All of them were designed with undivided backs, meaning that the graphic and message shared the front face of the card, while the back was exclusively for the address and postage. “Government issued cards,” the speaker explained, such as those sold by the U.S. Post Office in 1893 depicting the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, “could be mailed for one cent; cards that were privately printed required two cents.” But that state of affairs would not endure for long. In fact, the history of postcards is the history of changes in laws, materials and design.

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1898 By an Act of Congress, privately printed postcards could be mailed at the same one-cent rate as the U.S. Post Office cards

1901 Congress authorized use of the term “Post Card” on the back of privately produced cards

1902 Kodak developed a special paper that allowed customers to send the company a photo, which they would send back as a postcard

1907 Divided-back postcards were introduced; like today, a center vertical line left a space at left for the message and at right for the address and postage, thus expanding the size and impact of the graphic on the front

1915–1930 After WWI broke out, U.S. printers sought to curtail costs by skimping on ink; instead of printing the image to the very edge of the card, White Border Post Cards left colorless borders surrounding the images

1930–1944 The Linen Era of Post Cards featured cards produced on high-rag- content stock and printed with cheap, flashy inks

1945 This began the Chrome Era of cards, ie, the familiar glossy color photo images typical of the commercial printing of postcards today

Credit: en.wikipedia.org.

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Many of these styles could be seen in Berdy’s presentation of the Historical Society’s wonderful collection of island images. Unfortunately, there were far too many cards to reproduce here; but a representative selection is shown below.

Both Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary and City Hospital postcards were produced by Otto Schmidt & Son. Located at 944 Third Avenue at the corner of 57th Street, the printer seemed to have an enduring fascination with the various penal and hospital buildings on the island and he created a number of cards on the subject. Produced around 1905 or 1906, these two postcards were examples of the undivided back: the front bore the image and a very small space below for writing, while the back was only for the stamp and address. As depicted, the fortress-like penitentiary was enormous—five blocks long, occupying the current Cornell site. The hospital, located just south of today’s Cornell site, was made of stone quarried on the island by inmates of the penitentiary.

The Workhouse, designed by James Renwick, occupied the current site of 10 and 20 River Road, approximately across from 72nd to 74th Streets. Prisoners were disgorged right onto the pier in the West channel. The postcard was another Otto Schmidt product.

Ivy is overgrowing the formal staircase entrance to the Octagon, once the Lunatic Asylum but converted into Metropolitan Hospital in 1895. The staircase on the inside would have been very much like today’s restored version. Note the horse ambulance.

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A foldover card dated 1909 exhibits the then relatively new style of divided back. It shows the Queensboro Bridge in its very last stages of construction—no finials as yet.

The steamer Thomas M. Mulry served as ferry to Blackwell’s Island. It would leave from the pier at 78th Street and tie up at the Octagon.

Starting in the 1890s, the Nurses’ Training School was housed in what had been the Smallpox Hospital. The center section was the original hospital. Two wings, built a year apart in the early 20th century and designed by different companies, were added to accommodate the nurses.

The Penitentiary with New York Skyline is printed on linen stock with bright inks and a white border. It probably dates to the 1930s as revealed by the presence of the Chrysler and Empire State buildings, the pier in back of the prison, and the absence of the FDR Drive.

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An example of a Chrome Era card, the photograph of Goldwater Hospital was taken from the Queensboro Bridge not too long after the hospital was built (probably the 1940s). Dating is suggested by the fact that the island is shorter, missing the landfill extension that was added later.

Speaker Berdy commented that the postcards featured images meant to portray the island as attractive and tranquil. But, sometimes, she confided, “These images were enhancements of reality.”

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More Julia Gash Merchandise at the Visitor Center

This season’s most popular design—an illustrative montage of Roosevelt Island themes by artist Julia Gash—just got a line extension. Items now include: Aprons New! Adult Tee-Shirts  S, M, L, XL Mugs New! Women’s V-Neck Magnets New! Kids/Youth Tee-Shirts  S, M, L, XL Postcards New! Toddler Tee-Shirts 3, 4 Tea Towels New! Poster, 24” x 36”, Suitable for Framing Tote Bags PS: Also check out the new island map designed by David Cain, both fold-ups and framed copies. The Visitor Center is open daily 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.

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RIHS Calendar Roosevelt Island Historical Society Lecture Series—FREE @ the New York Public Library Branch, 524 Main St., 6:30 pm Thursday, September 12 “Barren Island” Carol Zoref discusses her book about the “factory” island in Jamaica Bay where dead horses and other large animals were rendered into glue and fertilizer from the mid-19th century until the 1930s. It is a story of immigrant families who lived their entire lives steeped in the smell of burning animal flesh in a world that no longer exists.

Thursday, November 14 Thursday, December 12 Thursday, January 9 Thursday, February 13 TBA Save these dates for our Winter Lecture Series. ___________________________________________________________________

September (TBA) Blackwell House Ribbon-cutting Official opening of the newly refurbished landmark. Interior work is completed. There remains only roof repairs and associated exterior work which are scheduled to begin immediately.

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