New York Almanack

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Medical History

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.

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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

Yellow Fever, Immunity, and Early New Orleans

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ben_franklins_worldIn 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase included the vital port city of New Orleans. But the United States did not just acquire the city’s land, peoples, and wealth – the American government also inherited the city’s Yellow Fever problem.

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Kathryn Olivarus, author of Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom (Belknap Press, 2022), leads us on an exploration of yellow fever, immunity, and inequality in early New Orleans. [Read more…] about Yellow Fever, Immunity, and Early New Orleans

Lethal Chambers: The Curse of Anglo-American Eugenics

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eugenicsThe relationship between politics and science has always been complicated, and at times, disastrous.

The term eugenics was coined in 1883 by the British scientist Francis Galton who advocated that society should promote the marriage of the “fittest” individuals by providing monetary incentives.

Numerous intellectuals and political leaders (Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes in Britain; Woodrow Wilson and Alexander Graham Bell in the United States) came to accept the idea that society should strive for the improvement of the human race through governmental intervention. [Read more…] about Lethal Chambers: The Curse of Anglo-American Eugenics

Amsterdam’s Racetrack and Other Mohawk Valley Stories

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, Bob Cudmore has stories from his Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder Focus on History columns including Amsterdam’s horse racing track, the life of a volunteer nurse in the Civil War and Amsterdam radio announcers who served in Armed Forces Radio. [Read more…] about Amsterdam’s Racetrack and Other Mohawk Valley Stories

Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

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Ira HarrisIra Harris was born at Charleston, Montgomery County, NY on May 31st, 1802 to Fredrick Waterman Harris and Lucy Hamilton. When he was six years old, his family moved to Preble, NY where his father became one of the largest landowners in Cortland County.

Harris attended Homer Academy and graduated from Union College in 1824. He studied law for one year in Homer, New York and then moved to Albany where he assisted one of that city’s most highly regarded jurists, Ambrose Spencer. [Read more…] about Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

Major André’s Toe & Typhoid Mary on Rockland Co Podcast

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crossroads of rockland historyThe September 2021 episode of “Crossroads of Rockland History,” was a two-part episode. First, host Clare Sheridan read “The True Story of Major André’s Toe,” as written by Palisades Historian Alice Gerard. (The story appeared in the HSRC’s South of the Mountains history quarterly).

This story is relevant right now, because one hundred years ago, Major John André’s remains were exhumed by order of the Duke of York and moved from Tappan, NY (the site of André’s hanging) to Westminster Abbey. Part 2 revisited our interview with author Mary Beth Keane about her book Fever, the historical fiction exploration of Mary Mallon, a.k.a. Typhoid Mary — a story of that is more relevant today than ever. [Read more…] about Major André’s Toe & Typhoid Mary on Rockland Co Podcast