Father of Gynecology?

What: A controversial statue of the “Father of Modern Gynecology”
When: 1894
Where: Fifth Avenue and 103 Street
Jul 11, 2017 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Health & Medicine, Upper East Side | Tags: Central Park, controversy, gynecology, James Marion Sims, speculum, statue, women's health | Leave A Comment »
Dental School

What: New York College of Dentistry, third oldest in the country
When: mid-1800s
Where: 161 Fifth Avenue
Jun 14, 2017 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Flatiron District, Health & Medicine, Scientists & Institutions | Tags: Andrew Spielman, dentists, Father of Orthodontics, New York College of Dentistry, New York University, New York University's College of Dentistry, Norman Kingsley | Leave A Comment »
A Rural Cemetery

What: A cemetery to address 19th century bans on downtown burials
When: mid 1800s
Where: 770 Riverside Drive, between 153 and 155 streets
Jun 13, 2017 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Health & Medicine, Upper West Side | Tags: Board of Health, cholera, disease, miasma, Trinity Church, Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum, yellow fever | Leave A Comment »
Pneumatic Subway

What: New York City’s first subway
When: 1870s
Where: Broadway and Warren Street, near City Hall
Jun 13, 2017 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Financial District, Technology & Engineering | Tags: Alfred Ely Beach, Broadway, invention, pneumatic subway, Scientific American, subway, trains | Leave A Comment »
Harlem Hospital

What: Trained African American physicians and nurses during segregation
When: Founded in 1887
Where: Harlem
Feb 18, 2016 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Harlem, Health & Medicine, Scientists & Institutions | Tags: Harlem Hospital, John Cordice, Louis Wright, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., TB | Leave A Comment »
Clandestine Abortionist

What: Ann Trow Lohman, known as Madame Restell, ran a 19th century abortion house at a time when physicians advocated for fertility control.
When: 1840
Where: Fifth Avenue and 52 Street, Manhattan
Apr 07, 2014 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Health & Medicine, Midtown East | Tags: abortion, Ann Trow Lohman, birth control, Comstock laws, George Washington Dixon, Madame Restell, Morris Ketchum Jesup, New York Society for the Suppression of Vice | Leave A Comment »
Heat Wave 1896

What: An intense heat wave killed 1,500 people and was nearly lost to history because of the paucity of records
When: 1896
Where: New York City
May 07, 2013 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Environment, Health & Medicine, Lower East Side | Tags: heat wave, natural disaster, Theodore Roosevelt | Leave A Comment »
Father of Pediatrics

What: Established pediatrics as a medical field
When: 1853
Where: 20 Howard Street, Manhattan
May 07, 2013 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Health & Medicine, Scientists & Institutions, SoHo | Tags: 20 Howard Street, Abraham Jacobi, calomel, children, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York Medical College, Nursery and Child's Hospital of New York, pediatrics | Leave A Comment »
A Madhouse in the East River

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 »
Pearl Street Power Play

What: The first centralized power plant
When: 1882
Where: Mid-200s block of Pearl Street; now 40 Fulton Street
Jul 17, 2012 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Financial District, Scientists & Institutions, Technology & Engineering | Tags: alternating current, Current Wars, direct current, electricity, General Electric, Nikola Tesla, Pearl Street, Pearl Street Station, Thomas Edison | Leave A Comment »
Building the Brooklyn Bridge

What: First suspension bridge made with steel cables.
When: 1883
Where: Across the East River, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan
Jul 17, 2012 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Lower East Side, Technology & Engineering | Tags: Brooklyn Bridge, caissons, East River, Emily Roebling, John Roebling, suspension bridge, Washington Roebling | Leave A Comment »
The Current Wars

What: Inventor Nicholas Tesla won the current wars with AC, but died impoverished
When: Late nineteenth century
Where: Midtown, Manhattan
Sep 10, 2010 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Midtown West, Scientists & Institutions, Technology & Engineering | Tags: alternating current, Current Wars, direct current, electronics, George Westinghouse, immigrants, New Yorker Hotel, Nikola Tesla | Leave A Comment »
Rural TB Retreat

What: The 25-bed Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids
When: 1884
Where: 84 Street and York Avenue
May 16, 2010 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Health & Medicine, Upper East Side | Tags: Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, sanitarium, tuberculosis | Leave A Comment »