Pandemic victims are filling NYC’s Hart Island. It isn’t the first time.
In 1905, Hart Island housed a reformatory for “vicious boys.” This 1913 picture shows boys working near the greenhouse. Throughout its 150 years, the island has housed many institutions.
A reformatory caretaker walks with a group of boys in 1913.
A reformatory keeper c. 1913. Keepers were notoriously cruel: A 1915 investigation found guards doled out inhumane punishments like isolation and sleep deprivation, and forced boys to beat each other, Narratively reports.
A tree provides shade over the reformatory’s greenhouse.
An unidentified child on Hart Island c. 1913.
A precursor to New York’s Department of Corrections operated a prison alongside the reformatory on the island.
This 1950 aerial photo shows a 30-foot-tall white tower, a monument built by prisoners to mark the burial ground. One side of the monument bears a cross; the other says “peace.”
Prisoners in 1963 bury the bodies of men who were poisoned by drinking wood alcohol, also known as methanol.
A burial in December 1991. City Cemetery, also known as “potter’s field,” was established in 1869 for people who can’t afford private funerals.
Prisoners from Rikers Island Corrections Centre bury coffins in February 1992.
The home of the prison warden is among many crumbling buildings that remind visitors of Hart Island’s past.
About a million people are buried on Hart Island, which is only a little over 100 acres—a tenth of the size of Central Park.
Workers wearing personal protective equipment bury bodies on April 9, 2020, the day the New York City medical examiner reduced the amount of time it will keep remains from two months to two weeks, before sending them for temporary interment at Hart Island’s City Cemetery.
