New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Medical History

Under Threat: Willard State Hospital at Seneca Lake

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Willard State Hospitals Hadley Hall c 1887Willard State Hospital in Romulus, Seneca County, NY has defined the physical landscape and cultural environment of its rural corner of the Finger Lakes region for nearly 175 years. The hospital complex was the largest of its kind in the 1870s, with dozens of buildings, open space, and working farms.

Once comprising over 1,000 acres, its current size is about 400 acres including a mile of Seneca Lake shoreline and an institutional cemetery containing approximately 6,000 burials. Despite the loss of several architecturally important buildings, about 70 buildings still stand today. [Read more…] about Under Threat: Willard State Hospital at Seneca Lake

Dr Rosetta Sherwood Hall: Catskills to Korea

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Rosetta Sherwood HallDr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall was born in Liberty in Sullivan County, NY on September 19th, 1865, grew up on the family farm and attended the Chestnut Ridge School and the Liberty Normal Institute.

After receiving her teaching degree from Oswego, she taught in local schools for a few years before entering the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1886, and becoming a missionary doctor in Korea in 1890.

Her pioneering work with deaf and blind Korean children and her founding of what eventually became the Korea University College of Medicine in Seoul. [Read more…] about Dr Rosetta Sherwood Hall: Catskills to Korea

William Sears’ American Hygiene Vegetable Renovating Pills

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Sears American Hygiene Vegetable Renovating Pills Advert Newburgh Telegraph, Jan 26 1835The nineteenth century in America saw the rapid growth of “patent” medicines, developed and marketed to a populace longing for relief from the many chronic maladies of life.  Newspapers of the times were filled with advertising extolling the virtues of these creations as entrepreneurs tried to make their fortune by selling into this need.

The early fall of 1834 found one such man, William Sears, then in his middle fifties, traveling around Saratoga County soliciting testimonials from prominent local citizens as to the benefits of the medicines he had produced that were now being offered to the public. [Read more…] about William Sears’ American Hygiene Vegetable Renovating Pills

A 1912 Adirondack Scarlet Fever Outbreak Echoes Today

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Keene Valley NY ca 1903 postcardScarlet fever is something we don’t have to think about any more. One hundred years ago however, this childhood killer struck fear into the hearts of parents everywhere, including the little town of Keene, NY, in the Adirondacks.

On March 4th, 1912, in the face of a frightening scarlet fever outbreak, the Keene Town Board of Health took emergency action. The Board ordered “that the church, school houses, library, neighborhood house and Keene Valley Club House shall be closed until further notice.”

Today, in the midst of our Covid-19 turmoil, the disputes over vaccines, masks, and other government and scientific recommendations, it is hard to imagine a citizen board of health exercising that kind of power — to declare the church and the schools and the library closed. Boom. “Mo(tion) carried,” says the official one-page document, hand-written in pencil. [Read more…] about A 1912 Adirondack Scarlet Fever Outbreak Echoes Today

Barber-Surgeons, Bloodletting & The Leeches of Manhattan

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Washington on his DeathbedDecember 12th, 1799, was a freezing cold day in Virginia, but the weather conditions did not stop President George Washington riding out on horseback for the daily inspection of his Mount Vernon plantation. On return, he developed a fever and respiratory distress.

As there were no means to diagnose or treat a bacterial infection, doctors believed that bloodletting would improve a patient’s condition. In addition to the application of crude purgatives and emetics, over half of Washington’s blood was drained in just a few hours. Today, it is widely held that the President died from aggressive bloodletting which resulted in severely low blood pressure and shock.

Recurrent yellow fever epidemics in Philadelphia and George Washington’s medical treatment contributed to a fierce politico-medical fall out in which the issue of bloodletting took center stage.

[Read more…] about Barber-Surgeons, Bloodletting & The Leeches of Manhattan

The Joy of Eating: Billy Possum, Fat Men Clubs & Obesity History

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William Hogarth, The Roast Beef of Old England, 1748 (Tate Britain)Weightism is a bias or discrimination against people who are overweight. It is based on a set of stereotypes about the abilities of overweight individuals and includes prejudices that they are self-indulgent, socially inept, and mentally slow. Obesity was judged to be incompatible with intelligence and acuity.

The weight stigma is a relatively modern one. Fat shaming started in the 1950s. In March 1954, Life magazine featured an article entitled “The Plague of Overweight” in which obesity was described as the most serious health problem of the day. Without any further consideration the condition was linked to gluttony. At the time, only around three percent of Americans were considered overweight.

From the Renaissance onward, obesity had suggested wealth and power. It pointed at the means to supply and enjoy the luxury of food. Plumpness equaled prosperity. If one’s body was a temple, then being the size of a cathedral signaled status. Physical proportion was a badge of economic and physical well-being, both in individual and national terms. [Read more…] about The Joy of Eating: Billy Possum, Fat Men Clubs & Obesity History

Saratoga’s ‘Fanny the Flower Girl,’ Gotham Book Mart Founder

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Congress Spring, Saratoga, 1849Frances Steloff was the daughter of a Russian immigrant and itinerant rabbi who, in an age of rising anti-Semitism, was one of the early Jewish settlers in Saratoga Springs. The large family lived in dire poverty.

After the death of her mother, Frances was “informally” adopted by a wealthy Boston couple. Having run away from her foster parents, she made her way to New York, worked in a Brooklyn department store selling corsets, before establishing a tiny bookshop in Midtown Manhattan. On her death, after eighty-one years in the business, she was revered as one of America’s most influential booksellers and bibliophiles. Founder of the Gotham Book Mart, she turned her establishment into a center for avant-garde literature. [Read more…] about Saratoga’s ‘Fanny the Flower Girl,’ Gotham Book Mart Founder

New York Lunatic Asylum at Utica: A History of Old Main

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Old Main Book CoverBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

The book The New York Lunatic Asylum at Utica: A History of Old Main (North Country Books, 2015) by Dennis Webster looks at the New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, also known as “Old Main,” which opened in 1843 as the first institution of its kind to treat “madness” as a medical illness, not a curse.

Although closed in 1978, the building was placed in the National Register of Historic Places, and its iconic columns still fascinate the public today. [Read more…] about New York Lunatic Asylum at Utica: A History of Old Main

Bruce Dearstyne: Making Use of New York’s Usable Past

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Map of the State of New York courtesy Nations Online ProjectNew York, the nation’s historically most important state, has a lot of history worth exploring and sharing more extensively. That history is particularly useful for perspective on current critical public issues.

Many of these are discussed in a historical vacuum, as if they have never been considered before. In fact they have, and history is a good place to start the discussion because it provides parallels, precedents, and perspectives. [Read more…] about Bruce Dearstyne: Making Use of New York’s Usable Past