When a person dies in New York City, officials inform their next of kin. What happens when nobody accepts responsibility?
For as long as I have lived on City Island, A Slice of NYC Paradise I have progressively learned more about Hart Island. This smaller island nestled behind me has served as a potters' field for unclaimed corpses for a long time. First under the Bureau of Prisons and now the NYC Parks Department. But it all started in 1869 and until today, there are over a million buried there, including the last group of COVID deaths, but not limited to only one contagious disease. Since 1980, over 73,087 people have been buried in mass graves on Hart Island.
Everyone who lives on the streets is there because they chose to live this way. In this concrete jungle, the temperatures are frigid enough to kill anyone who does not take cover. Hart Island is the place where all the difficult stories are forever hidden.
These burials continue on a regular basis and the stories of many someones are buried somewhere on this forgotten island.
Hart Island: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw-F8FFatrc
The Hart Island Project has just received $50,000 from the Telling the Full History Preservation Fund. This is a grant program from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and made possible through the National Endowment for the Humanities’ American Rescue Plan Humanities Grantmaking for Organizations.
Over the next year, these funds will allow the HIP to make Traveling Cloud Museum more accessible to low-income communities who search for family and friends and add stories using mobile devices. They will provide new way-finding tools and self-guided tours free and accessible without downloading an app. Drop them a message with your ideas for Telling the Full History of Hart Island and join our decade+ effort to make Hart Island open and accessible to all so no one is omitted from history.
The Hart Island Project is one of 80 organizations that received $25,000 and $50,000 grants to interpret and preserve historic places of importance to underrepresented communities. Telling the Full History grants to support the core activities of humanities-based organizations as the organizations recover from the pandemic and use historic places as catalysts for a more just and equitable society. @SavingPlaces #SHARP @NEHgov #SavingPlaces https://www.hartisland.net/contact
HART ISLAND https://www.hartisland.net/