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To those drawn to the stories of New York’s past, you might like a Gotham Center for New York History podcast series that I participated in: Lost New York. I talk about Blackwell’s Island, (what Roosevelt Island was called in the 19th century) when it was the home of the city’s Lunatic Asylum and other institutions..

A “dark cell,” pictured below, was the name for solitary confinement back then. Cells for solitary were not only used in the prisons on Blackwell’s Island, but also in the Lunatic Asylum. This is one of the things I talk about, but there is a great line-up of speakers in this series, all worth listening to!

The picture after that is of a device called a crib. Some patients at the Lunatic Asylum were locked down in them at night. Dr. Edward C. Spitzka, a noted neurologist at the time, described how, “An excitable person will squirm in it like a squirrel.”

Halloween decorations have started to appear in the West Village. The parade has been cancelled this year, but I think people can trick or treat. It could be done relatively safely, couldn’t it? We shall see. I won’t be able to resist going out to walk around and see. Social distancing will be difficult but at least everyone will be wearing masks!

This picture isn’t exciting to look at. ITP is where I went to graduate school (I got my degree in 1989). I spent some of the happiest years of my life at this school, in various rooms along this hallway, and with the people within. ITP moved to Brooklyn and is no longer in this location. It’s okay, everything changes, nothing lasts forever, and so on. But still. I made so many exciting discoveries here. I was introduced to so many amazing people here. Sob. Goodbye 721 Broadway.

I wrote a book about Blackwell’s Island (what Roosevelt Island was called in the 19th century) called Damnation Island. This was the period when the island was owned by the city and they used it to build and run a lunatic asylum, a couple of prisons, and hospitals for the poor. I’ve been thinking about Blackwell’s Island again because I recently recorded a podcast for the Gotham Center (the whole series is great, in my opinion, and well worth listening to). I also think about it from time to time because we keep making the same mistakes repeatedly. Films made of asylums 100 years later for instance, are horrifying. I recorded Titicut Follies, a 1967 documentary about the Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane, but I can’t bring myself to watch it.

This quote captures just how bad it was on Blackwell’s Island. What breaks my heart is that as awful as it was then, life inside many replacement institutions today is worse. The picture below is of the Workhouse, one of the prisons on the island.

“When you pass down in a boat along Blackwell’s Island and see its greensward and leafy trees, and massive monumental buildings, perhaps you may think it a fine place to live in, but under those roofs a great amount of misery, sin and shame is hidden, from which in many instances death is the only relief. And years come and years go, but the misery ever remains the same. Many a one who started in life with bright hopes, is carried away from here to an unknown grave in Potter’s Filed.”

— Rev. Samuel II. Frisbie, S.J. Woodstock Letters, Volume XXIII, Number 1, April 1, 1894

As usual, I can’t bring myself to watch the debate tonight, but I will be following reactions on twitter, like last time. Who is going to actually watch?? By the way, this is not a new thing for me. I have never been able to tolerate the debate format. I vastly prefer a townhall, as long as people remain civilized.

Another happy wedding couple. Focus on the good things, focus on the good things. A happy couple and puppers!!