What: Cook Mary Mallon was forcibly detained on North Brother Island to stem the spread of typhoid
When: Early 1900s
Where: North Brother Island, in the East River
Jan 24, 2016 | Categories: All stories, Early 20th Century (1898-1945), Health & Medicine, Outside Manhattan | Tags: East River, George Soper, immigrants, Mary Mallon, North Brother Island, Philip Alcabes, quarantine, Riverside Hospital, Typhoid Mary | Leave A Comment »
What: Officers from the Public Health Service examined thousands of immigrants who arrived by ship, controlling who could enter the country
When: 1929
Where: Ellis Island, Upper New York Bay
Apr 04, 2014 | Categories: All stories, Early 20th Century (1898-1945), Health & Medicine, Outside Manhattan | Tags: Dr. Elizabeth Yew, Ellis Island, germ theory, health, immigrants, Kate Ferguson, Public Health Service, Sura Meisler | Leave A Comment »
What: Reporter for “The New York World,” Nellie Bly pretended to be a patient in order to spend ten days in New York’s worst mental institution. Her article transformed conditions at the institution.
When: 1887
Where: Roosevelt’s Island
Oct 21, 2012 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Health & Medicine, Outside Manhattan | Tags: "Ten Days in a Mad-House", Alexander Jackson Davis, Blackwell's Island, mental institution, Metropolitan Hospital, Nellie Bly, New York World, Roosevelt Island, The Octagon | Leave A Comment »