Blog - For The Record — NYC Department of Records & Information Services

Elise Winks

Oyster Boards in the Old Town records

This week’s article highlights another important topic in New York City history that can be researched in the Old Town Records: oysters. 

Although somewhat difficult to envision now, two centuries ago, the waters surrounding New York City were clean and fertile enough to provide ample sustenance for the region’s inhabitants. The first European settlers of what became New York City—at the time a scattering of towns and villages across each of the current five boroughs—depended on the land and water around them to survive. One way they accomplished this was to harvest oysters.

Dog Licenses in the Old Town Records

Dog owners in New York City will be familiar with the process of registering and licensing their pets. The Department of Health requires owners to pay a fee and fill out a form that includes the dog’s name, breed, gender, color, and vaccination and spaying/neutering status. This has been standard procedure for well over a century: the first dog licensing law in New York State was passed in 1894. The Municipal Archives collections are notably diverse and comprehensive so it should come as no surprise that dog licensing records can be found in its holdings.   

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

The place to look is the Old Town records collection. With a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the Municipal Archives has been processing the collection during this past year. It is comprised of records created in the villages and towns that were eventually consolidated into the Greater City of New York in 1898. They date back to the 1600s and consist of deeds, minutes from town boards and meetings, court records, tax records, license books, enumerations of enslaved people, school district records, city charters, information on the building of sewers and streets and other infrastructure.

The collection provides documents that are crucial to understanding when the towns and villages were purchased—or sometimes wrested—from the indigenous inhabitants, how the land was divided and sold, who governed the communities, and essentially, a fascinating record of daily life in the communities that made up what became the five boroughs of New York City after 1898.

For the Record recently highlighted the collection and the processing project.  It described records from the Board of Health, pertaining to slavery in the villages, records about taxes and school districts and town meetings and basic infrastructure and court proceedings. The Old Town collection also contains eleven ledgers related to dog licensing, all from towns and villages in Queens County.

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

While these ledgers provide documentation of an important function of the Board of Health and the history of this practice, it is also simply fun to look through the license books and see what kinds of dogs past inhabitants of the city owned—and what they named them.

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

The dog license ledger from the Village of Far Rockaway, dated 1896 to 1897, only a couple of years after the state law was passed, shows how the information required to register a dog with the government remains largely unchanged. Just as it does today, the registration asks for the owner’s name and the dog’s breed, description, and name. The price for registering seems to range between $1 and $2 per year (compared to $8.50 today). 

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

One can see that popular dog breeds were spaniels, poodles, and pugs, among others. Owners seemed to favor royalty-inspired names such as Prince and Duke.

New York City today is a dog-loving city, and it is clear from these records that this has been the case for a very long time. Look for future blogs that describe the rich and fascinating content of the Old Town collection. 

 *All photos are from: Old Town Records Collection, MS 0004, Subgroup 4, Series 6, Subseries 3, Vol. 28: License Book, Dogs, 301-601, 1896 July 1-1897 July 8

We’ll assume Mr. and Mrs. Clinton B. Nichols, of Queens County, obtained a license for their dog, ca. 1890. Borough President Queens photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

 

Archival processing and digitization of the Colonial Old Town Records is made possible by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

 

Processing the Old Town Records Collection

Over the past several months as a project archivist at the Municipal Archives, I have been processing the Old Town records. Funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the project is to preserve and digitize a huge collection of volumes that are remarkable records of the earliest days of New York City. The Old Town collection, which dates back to the seventeenth century, contains records from the villages and towns that eventually became the five boroughs in 1898. They consist of deeds, minutes from town boards and meetings, court records, tax records, license books, school district records, city charters, information on street and sewer construction, and much, much more. It is a collection rich with fascinating content and the chance to make it more accessible through this grant-funded project is a great opportunity.

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, Cover. NYC Municipal Archives.

It is always interesting to find parallels to modern life when looking through books and papers that are centuries old. The old adage that history repeats itself does, at times, seem to ring true. One such instance is a Board of Health ledger from Kings County, dating from September 15, 1892 to December 31, 1894.   

Flipping through the book, topics and problems facing the Board of Health become readily apparent: records of deaths due to illnesses that were reported to the board, salaries and raises for board officials, unpaid bills, resignations and appointments to various positions (doctors, sanitation workers, etc.), and regulations regarding the storage of meat are just some of the subjects in this minute book.

But as you turn the pages, a word that has become very familiar of late jumps out many times: “vaccination.” After looking at these entries in more detail, the story becomes clearer: there was a smallpox outbreak in Brooklyn in the winter of 1893-1894, and this book documents the Board of Health’s efforts to contain it, largely by vaccinating as much of the population as possible.

A plan for the vaccination is laid out:

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, page 19, Orders Issued to Vaccinators. NYC Municipal Archives.

“February 9, 1894,

Orders issued to vaccinators and sanitary inspectors as follows:

You will vaccinate in ward and make daily reports to the Inspector of the district. You will urge vaccination upon all who have not been vaccinated within five (5) years.

Yours truly,

Z. Taylor Emery, M.D.

Commissioner”

We also find printed pages distributed by the Department of Health pasted into the book:

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, Rules for Vaccinators. NYC Municipal Archives.

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, Further Instructions. NYC Municipal Archives.  

The above Rules for Vaccinators, and Further Instructions includes phrases like:

“This applies with especial force in times of epidemic prevalence.”

“In case persons are found who have never been vaccinated, every effort should be made to induce them to accept it, and, if necessary, they should be visited a second or third time.”

“When the inmates of infected houses refuse to be vaccinated, the vaccinator may—at his discretion—direct the Sanitary Police to maintain a quarantine until they are vaccinated.”

These instructions indicate how this was a matter of utmost importance to the Board of Health. The sense of urgency is, again, a familiar one in the current pandemic.

We continue to learn of the city’s efforts to immunize its people:

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, page 38, Vaccinating the Bakery. NYC Municipal Archives.

Another familiar scenario: vaccination stations were set up around Brooklyn.

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, Vaccine Stations. NYC Municipal Archives.

They then took their efforts to the public schools:

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, Meeting. NYC Municipal Archives.

“Conference was held between the Commissioner [and] President of the Board of Education…with regard to the measures to be taken for the protection of the Public School children from the danger of smallpox. The Commissioner insisted on the necessity of an examination of all the children in the Public Schools in order to determine whether or not they had been vaccinated….”

An official plan was made:

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, Schools Announcement. NYC Municipal Archives.

As seen above, the goal was to vaccinate any child who hadn’t yet been, for whatever reason. Those who were not vaccinated were not allowed to attend school until they brought a certificate of vaccination.

It was a swift process, lasting only a few weeks, as we see an entry dated April 23, 1894: “Vaccination of the children in the public schools completed this day.”

A few months later we see a letter from Henry H. Morton, a contagious disease expert, requesting statistics to show “the protective power of vaccination”: 

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, Statistics Request. NYC Municipal Archives.

And, the last entry referencing the vaccination effort is a congratulatory letter from the Medical Society of the County of Kings.

Old Town Records Collection, MSS 0004, Subgroup 2, Series 2, Subseries 14, Vol. 1: Department of Health, City of Brooklyn, 1892-1894, Congratulations. NYC Municipal Archives.

The efforts that the city made to vaccinate its citizens were no doubt controversial at the time, and in fact resulted in a number of legal cases. But as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it is interesting to learn about previous efforts to contain a serious threat to the population’s health. A few things are clear: virus and disease is a consistent problem throughout human history; controversy over vaccines and the methods in which government decides to distribute and encourage them is not a new issue; and vaccines have been an effective, safe method to fight serious health threats for centuries.

 

Archival processing and digitization of the Colonial Old Town Records is made possible by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. 

 

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