USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884 Volume II > Part 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
An important institution for the treatment of diseases of the eye and car was founded in 1869 by J. Herman Knapp, a native of Prussia.+ under the title of the NEW YORK OPHTHALMIC AND ACRAL INSTITUTE. Its objects were defined as the providing of a dispensary and a hospital for the treatment of diseases of the eye and car, and a school of ophthalmology and otology, the benefits of which institution should be given gratuitously to patients unable to pay therefor, and to other patients for compensation, but all moneys so received shall be applied to the support of the institution.+
THE HOME FOR OLD MEN AND AGED COUPLES, at No. 4ST Hudson
* The officers for 1883 were : Mrs. M. A. Eller, president ; Mrs. Rebecca Collins and Mrs. William F. Mott, vice-presi.leuts ; Miss Elizabeth H. Rodman, treasurer ; Miss Sarah H. Murray, recording secretary, and Mrs. P. M. Clapp, corresponding secretary. There is a board of twenty-five managers, all ladies, and an advisory board of eight gentlemen.
+ Herman Knapp, M.D., was born at Danborn, Prussia, in 1832. After a full collegiate course he began the study of medicine, at the age of nineteen years. at the University of Munich. He continued it at Würzburg, Berlin, Zurich, and Vienna, and graduated at the age of twenty-four. He then continued his studies at Paris, London, and Utrecht. and at the age of twenty-eight became a lecturer in the University of Heidelberg. In 1865 he was appointed professor of ophthalmology in that institution, and became dis- tinguished for his contributions to medical literature, the results of his scientific re- searches.
Dr. Knapp came to New York in 1867. established the Ophthalmie and Anral Institute. and founded a purely scientific periodical called Archives of Ophthalmology and Otology, published in the English and German languages. It has appeared regularly ever since.
Dr. Knapp is an active member of several medical societies, and is consulting surgeon to a number of charitable institutions in the city. In 1992 he was chosen professor of ophthalmology in the University of the City of New York. He holds a first rank among specialists who treat diseases of the eye and ear.
# The officers for 1882-83 were : Frederick S. Winston, president : William A. Wheelock . and Dr. W. H. Draper (since dereasen), vice-presidents ; En one'S B.Afin, treasurer, and Philip Bissinger, secretary. There is a board of twenty-one that several vargens, and clinical assistants. Mrs. Josephine Houghtaling is matron.
:
826
IHISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Street, is devoted to the assistance of those who, having been accustomed to the comforts and in many cases the elegancies of life, through loss of property or other causes find themselves in old age without means for their support. The admission fee is $250 for each person. These fees . are placed in the permanent fund, and cannot be used for current expenses. The Home is entirely dependent upon vohintary contribu- · tions for its maintenance.
The good work began in 1872. Probably no institution of a similar nature has had within its walls so many good representatives of profes- sional, mercantile, and social life. A beautiful site for an edifice has been purchased by the trustees, on a height west of Morningside Park, where they hope soon to erect a suitable building."
THE CHURCH MISSION TO DEAF MUTES was established in 1872 by the Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, D.D. Dr. Gallaudet and his father are uni- versally known as the friends and successful instructors of the so-called deaf and dumb. Dr. Gallaudet began his special work among them in September, 1856, when he established a week-night Bible-class for adult deaf mutes in the vestry-room of St. Stephen's Church. He founded St. Ann's Church (of which he is still rector) in 1852, and in 1872 he became the founder of the Church Mission to Deaf Mutes for their temporal and spiritual welfare. Its beneficent operations have been extended through the country as far as possible. In the course of time deaf mutes were ordained deacons, the first time in the history of the Christian Church. They have been powerful helpers in the good work of the mission, which is far-reaching in its designs. It is a perpetual blessing to the class of citizens for which it was founded. t
A new profession for women has been opened by the establishment of training schools for nurses in New York. In 1872 the attention of the local visiting committee of the State Charities Aid Association # was
* The officers for 1982-83 were : the Right Rev. Horatio Potter, president er-oficin : the Rev. Isaac Tuttle, D. D., vice-president ; Herman H. Cammann, treasurer, and Henry Lewis Morris, secretary.
+ The officers for 1582-83 were : the Right Rev. Horatio Potter, president ; D. Colden Murray and the Rev. HI. Krans, vice-presidents ; A. L. Willis, secretary ; William Jewett. treasurer : the Rev. Dr. Gallandet, general manager, and the Rev. John Chamberlain, assistant manager. There is a board of twenty-five trustees.
# The originator of this association is Miss Lonisa Lee Schuyler, daughter of Colonel George L. Schuyler, of New York City. It was suggested to her benevolent mind by a visit to the Westchester County Poorhouse, not far from her country home. Th. wretched condition of the inmates shocked her. She resolved to attempt a reform. I. was accomplished in a large degree in the course of a few months by Miss Schuyler. assisted by a few ladies of the neighborhood. A permanent association for the pur;">
827
FIFTHI DECADE, 1870-18S0.
called to the condition of the sick in Bellevue Hospital. They found that condition extremely wretched for the want of competent nurses. They set themselves to the task of establishing in that hospital a train- ing school for nurses, and it was accomplished. They were met at first with opposition and indifference ; at the same time they were encour- aged by the warm approval of such eminent physicians as the late Dr. James . R. Wood, and Drs. Austin Flint and Stephen Smith. Dr. W. Gill Wylie offered to go to Europe at his own expense and gather infor- mation as to the methods of similar institutions there, and it was under his direction that the TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES at Bellevue was organized. A competent person (Miss Bowden) was placed at the head of the school, and its good work was speedily manifest. There is a Nurses' Home at No. 426 East Twenty-sixth Street. On their gradua- tion the nurses are furnished with a diploma, and a badge bearing the words, "Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses," with the figure of a stork, the symbol of watchfulness. This is one of the most useful institutions in the city, and is giving powerful aid to the work of the medical profession.
In 1875 the New York Homoeopathic Surgical Hospital and the Homoeopathic Hospital for Women and Children were merged into one institution, which was incorporated under the title of the ILMINEMAN HOSPITAL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. Connected with it is a Ladies' Hahnemann Hospital AAssociation. With these auxiliaries it is a strong and very flourishing institution. Its objects are those for which all hospitals are founded, but the system of homeopathic therapeutics is its distinctive feature. The institution occupies a spacious building on Fourth Avenue, between Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth streets. The corner-stone was laid in 1877, on which occasion Salem H. Wales. the chairman of the executive committee, in an address gave a brief history of its origin. Mr. Wales has been one of its most active officers from its beginning."
THE PROVIDENT DISPENSARY FOR WORKING WOMEN AND GIRLS WAS founded and established in January, 1880, by Miss Ella A. Jennings. M. D., an earnest and philanthropic young woman. and a graduate of the Woman's Medical College of New York. The design of the insti-
, of aiding the State Board of Charities in its work of reforming the pauper system in the State was organized in 1872, and clothed with power by the State. It is doing noble work in its chosen field of labor.
* The officers in 1882-83 were : Salem II. Wales, president ; Roger II. Lyon. secretary ; John T. Willets, treasurer : William Bryan, M. D., resident physician. Mais. Jonathan Sturges was president of the Ladies' Hahnemann Association.
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
tution is a noble one, and its works have been most beneficent. It fur- niches to working women and girls an opportunity for examinations, and- vice. and treatment, by one of their own sex, at alnost a nominal price. There have been during its existence an average of 2500 patients pre- scribed for and treated annually. The dispensary is open evenings as well as during the day, for the accommodation of those who cannot attend in the daytime. The dispensary is conducted under the ausplers of an advisory committee of well-known ladies and gentlemen. It is at No. 144 East Seventeenth Street. It is estimated that there are more than 180,000 working women and girls in the city of New York. In contemplation of the suffering in such a vast army, the value of such an institution may be approximately estimated.
New York City presents facilities for acquiring medical education second to none in the world. American students have now no urgent necessity for seeking instruction in medical science in transatlantic in- stitutions. This recognized fact is manifested by the hosts of students who fill the medical schools of New York City, and for the last two years have swelled the number of annual graduates to over five hun- dred. The catalogues of three schools show the names of pupils from every State in the Union, from South American states, from Central America, from Mexico, from Brazil, from Canada, and in some instances from France and Germany.
There are in the city seven medical colleges, to all of which the hos- pitals are open for the acquirement of practical knowledge. Of these colleges, four are allopathic, one is homeopathie, one is eclectic, and one is a woman's college. These have all received notice in these pages. They all have the advantages of the best medical talent in the city, either in their chairs or as consulting physicians and surgeons.
Foremost among the medical associations in the city is the NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE, of which Fordyce Barker, M.D., LL.D .. "
* Fordyce Barker, M.D., LL.D., is one of the most experienced and eminent physi- cians of our country. He is of English descent, and was born at Wilton, Maine, Muy 20, 1819, where his father was a prominent physician, but in later years reside.l in No. .York, and died there in 1858. The subject of this sketch was graduated at Bowdoin College in 1837. Choosing the healing art as a profession, he studied it under Drs. Bowditch and Perry in Boston, also at the Harvard Medical School, attending two in.l courses of lectures. He was also for a year a private pupil of the eminent Dr. Charles H. Stedman, and acquired valuable experience through his residence in the Chelsea Hos- pital, of which Dr. Stedman was physician. Returning to Maine, he entered the Bow doin Medical College. On his graduation, in 1841, he received the degree of M.D. Hi> thesis on the occasion was phthisis pulmonalis, a disease which had particularly of - manded his attention because it had ended the life of his mother a short time be for .
Determined to be thoroughly prepared before entering upon the practice of his pro .. .
A
829
FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1880.
is president. It was founded in 1847 by the association of the best and most eminent men in the profession, for the avowed purposes of culti- vating the science of medicine, the advancement of the character and honor of the profession. the elevation of the standard of medical educa- tion, and the promotion of the public health. Nobly have these pur- poses been pursued for more than a third of a century, with the happiest results.
The labors of the Academy in the work of sanitary reform alone entitle it to the lasting gratitude of every dweller in the metropolis. " I claim for it." said Dr. Willard Parker, its former president, " the right to recognition as the fountain-head of whatever excellence New York may boast as to sanitary regulations ; the right to style itself the
sion, Dr. Barker went to Europe, and after devoting considerable time to study in the great hospitals of London and Edinburgh, he went to Paris, where he remained about two years, studying under the most eminent physicians and receiving the degree of M.D. With his diploma he returned home and began the practice of medicine at Norwich, Conn. He was called back to Maine to take the chair of obstetries in Bowdoin Medical College, after which he was elected professor of midwifery and the diseases of women in the New York Medical College. He had married, a few years before, Miss Elizabeth Lee Dwight, of Springfield, Mass., an accomplished young lady of high social position, and he now made New York City his permanent home.
In 1854 Dr. Barker was appointed obstetric physician to the Bellevne Hospital, and held that position until 1874. In 1861 he became professor of clinical midwifery and the diseases of women in the Bellevue Medical College, which was organized that year, an 1 still fills that chair. He is consulting physician to Bellevue Hospital, to the Nursery and Child's Hospital, to St. Elizabeth's Hospital, and surgeon to the Woman's Hospital. He is one of the most active and efficient members of the Academy of Medicine. In 1857 he was elected its vice-president. He is now (1883), and has been for several years, presi- dent of that institution. In 1859 he was elected president of the New York State Medical Society, and he is a member of most of the principal medical organizations in the city. as well as of many charitable institutions. He is also an honorary Fellow of the Royal Medical Society of Athens, Greece, and of the obstetrical societies of London, Edin- burgh, Philadelphia, and Louisville ; of the Philadelphia College of Physicians, and of several State medical societies.
Dr. Barker has made many valuable contributions to medical literature. The most important and widely known and appreciated of his works, and the one on which his reputation as an author chiefly rests, is entitled " The Puerperal Disease." It is an octavo volume of abont six hundred pages. It has passed through several editions, and been translated and published in the Italian, French, and German languages, at Milan, Paris, and Leipzig. A leading French medical journal speaks of the work as follows : " These lessons on the puerperal diseases will place Fordyee Barker in the rank of the great clinical teachers-Chomel, Andral, Trousseau, Graves, of Dublin, and Hughes Bennett, of Edinburgh." Dr. Barker's vast experience in the special line of puerperal diseases exceeds, probably, that of any living physician, covering many thousand ' cases. He stands confessedly at the head of practitioners in that department of the medical profession, and he has a deservedly lagh reputation in every other department of the healing art.
830
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
bulwark between disease and the public weal, and thus it has been worth to this city by its services, millions of dollars. For to the Acad- emy New York is indebted for the existence of its protecting Board of Health-a board that has warded off disease that might have involved the lives of thousands of citizens and millions upon millions of prop- erty. The Academy set in motion that efficient Board of Health that - did that great work of stamping out cholera which saved untold lives to the State. This offspring of the Academy has inspired most of the legislation upon hygiene ever since, reformed our buildings, given us improved sewerage, checking the adulteration of food, and especially of punishing those who have destroyed unnumbered children with adul- terated milk."
For many years the Academy longed for a permanent home. It was gratified in 1575 by the purchase of a lot and building in West Thirty- first Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Since then, by the munificent benefactions of Dr. Abraham Dubois (deceased) and the gen- erous subscriptions of members of the Academy, the building has been so enlarged as to cover the entire lot with a library hall and audience- room, which was completed in 1879 and dedicated on October 2d of that year .*
Three institutions designed for the diffusion of knowledge and estab- lished early in the fifth decade appear conspicuous in the social history of New York City. These are the American Museum of Natural His- tory, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Lenox Library. The second one named is within the Central Park, the other two are on its borders.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, of which Morris K. Jesup + is now (1853) president, was incorporated in April, 1869, for the
* The Academy possesses a valuable library of about eighteen thousand volumes, open free to the profession and the public for consultation and reference. A portion of these volumes is the gift of an ex-president of the Academy. Samuel S. Purple, M.D. They con- sist of many very rare and precious books, and were valued, at the time of their presen- tation, at $10,000. The publications of the society are several volumes of " Transac- tions," of the " Bulletins, " and more than fifty addresses, memoirs, reports, etc.
The officers of the Academy in 1882 were : Fordyce Barker, MI D., LL. D., president ; James R. Leaming. M. D., Frank H. Hamilton, M. D., LL. D., and Robert F. Weir, M.D., vice-presidents ; Edwin F. Ward, M.D., recording secretary ; John G. Adams, M. D., corresponding secretary ; Horace P. farnham, M. D., treasurer.
+ Morris K. Jesup is of English descent through both parents, who were of the genn- ine Puritan stock who first settled New England. His family for many generations live ! and died in Fairfield County, Conn. He is the only survivor of the eight children tix sons and two danghters) of Charles and Abby Sherwood Jesnp. The latter wasa daughter of the Hon. Samuel B. Sherwood, a graduate of Yale, an eminent lawyer, and a member
831
FIFTH DECADE, 1870-1890.
purpose of establishing and maintaining in the city of New York a museum and library of natural history ; of encouraging and developing the study of natural science ; of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end of furnishing popular instruction and recreation. Having raised money enough in the course of a few weeks, chiefly from subscriptions by members of the board of trustees,# the managers purchased a valuable collection of specimens of natural history, including the Elliot collection of birds of North America. and the entire museum of Prince Maximilian of Neuwied. By permission of the Park Commissioners these acquisitions were exhibited in the Arsenal buildings in Central Park until the present fire-proof building (only a wing of a contemplated immense structure) was completed and opened to the public in December, 1877.t The collections are admi- rably disposed in halls or on balconies. The halls are 170 feet in
of Congress in 1817-19. His father was a merchant at Westport (the old Sangatnek dis- triet of Fairfield) until he became a member of a large mercantile firm in New York City, a few years before his sudden death, at the early age of forty-two years.
The subject of this sketch was born at Westport, Fairfield County, Conn., June 21, 1830. His early education was acquired in a village school at Westport. Circumstances compelled him to forego the benefits of a collegiate education, and to enter upon business life. In 1843 he entered the service of Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor. There he re- mained, receiving his valuable business education, until 1852, when he began business for himself under the firm name of Clark & Jesup. Four years afterward he organized the firm of M. K. Jesup & Co. (now, in 1883, Jesup, Paton & Co.)
From the beginning of his business career Mr. Jesup has earnestly devoted a large portion of his time and means to the work of charity and philanthropy. He was one of the original founders of the Young Men's Christian Association, and contributed liberally to the fund for the erection of its elegant and spacious home. For many years he has been president of the Five Points House of Industry, president of the New York City Mission Society, president of the American Museum of Natural History, vice-president of the Evangelical Alliance, and director of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum and of other institu- tions. He was among the first to recognize the need of the United States Christian Commission during the Civil War, was efficient in effecting its organization, andI was its treasurer.
The readers of this work will find the name of Mr. Jesup connected officially with many of the best and most efficient institutions in the city designed for the promotion of the public good.
* The corporators or first trustees named in the charter were : John David Wolfe. Robert Colgate, Benjamin H. Field. Robert L. Stuart, Adrian Iselin, Benjamin B. Sherman, William A. Haines, Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Potter, William T. Blodgett, . Morris K. Jesup, D. Jackson Steward, J. Pierpont Morgan, A. G. P. Dodge. Charles .1. Dana, Joseph H. Choate, and Henry Parish.
+ The architectural style of the building is modern Gothic. The materials of which its walls are constructed are red brick with yellow sandstone door and window trimmings. It is on Manhattan Square, which is now only an annex of Central Park and an ofna- mental adjunet of the museum, containing about fifteen deres of land.
.
S32
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
length and 60 feet in width. The collections have been arranged under the wise supervision of the learned Professor Albert S. Bickmore. the superintendent of the museum ; and so constant are the accessions to the collections that more room is greatly needed for a proper disposi- . tion of the contents of the institution. It embraces in its present posses- sions and its grand design every department of natural history, # and ` it promises to speedily become one of the grandest institutions of the kind in the world. It is already a very popular place of resort. especially for young people. The number of its visitors during the year ending September 1, 18$3, was fully 60,000.+ It is a poten- tial instructor of the people.
The Lenox Library with its buildings and ground is the free gift to the citizens of New York from the late James Lenox, and is the noblest and costliest of the munificent benefactions the city of his birth has received at his hands. The library building is on Fifth Avenue. front- ing Central Park, between Seventieth and Seventy-first streets. The institution was incorporated in 1870, and by its charter was placed in the charge of nine trustees-namely, James Lenox, William H. Aspin- wall. Hamilton Fish, Robert Rav. Alexander Van Rensselaer, Daniel Huntington, John Fisher Sheafe, James Donaldson, and Aaron Belk- nap. The trustees hold the office for life, filling all vacancies in their own number by a vote of two thirds.
# In addition to the ordinary departments of natural history, the museum has an economic department, in which is illustrated, by specimens, the products of the forests of our Republie which are useful in the arts and manufactures. This department was established through the liberality of the president of the museum, Morris K. Jesup. It also has a most attractive department of North American archaeology and ethnology. A lecture department for oral instruction in natural history was inaugurated in 1579 by Professor Bickmore, who gives lectures at the museum at stated times to classes made up of teachers in the public schools of the city. The instruction imparted to these teachers is given, as designed, to their pupils, and so the children of the public schools are reached by these lectures.
+ Admission to the onisenin is free of charge on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays each week. The conditions of its support are : the trustees are to furnish all the exhibits and to keep them accessible to the public ; the Department of Public Parks, as the representative of the city and State, furnishes the grounds and buildings, equips the same, and keeps them in repair. A contribution of $1000 at one time constitutes the giver a patron, $500 a fellow, and $100 a life-member ; or books and specimens of twice the amount in value may be accepted instead of money.
The first officers of the American Museum of Natural History were : John David Wolfe, president : Robert L. Stuart and William A. Haines, vice-presidente ; Theodore Roose- velt, secretary, and Howard Potter, treasurer. The officers for 1883 were : Morris K. Jesnp, president ; Robert Colgate and D. Jackson Steward, vice-presidents ; Hugh Anchineloss. secretary ; J. Pierpont Morgan, treasurer ; Professor Albert S. Bickmore. superintendent.
1
Dellastrada buen dia lieb her insanlar et s .
Eng Hoy Geo & Pering X York
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.