PLAGUE in GOTHAM! Cholera in Nineteenth-Century New York

Samuel Waldo (1783-1861) and William Jewett (1795-1873). John Pintard, 1832. Oil on wood panel. The Louis Durr Fund, 1928.1. 

Unlike most upper-class New Yorkers who had left the city by the height of the 1832 cholera epidemic, John Pintard (1759-1844) remained and reported that summer’s events in letters to his daughter in New Orleans. Pintard belonged to that first generation of post-Revolutionary municipal leaders who considered civic duty on par with material progress; he was a leader in many charitable and educational organizations, and in 1804 founded the New-York Historical Society. But, also typical for his class, he held the notion that those who contracted cholera had brought the wrath of God upon themselves by leading lives that lacked moral restraint. On July 13th he wrote:

At present it is almost exclusively confined to the lower classes of intemperate[,] dissolute & filthy people huddled together like swine in their polluted habitations. A visitation [of cholera] like the present may work beneficially to promote Temperance, proving a blessing instead of a curse.

And on July 19th:

We have a very heavy report this day, whi[ch,] however[,] does not in my opinion increase the cause for alarm. Those sickened must be cured or die off, & being chiefly of the very scum of the city, the quicker [their] dispatch the sooner the malady will cease.

Pintard wrote his daughter that the book he held in the portrait was the then immensely popular The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments; with Original Notes, and Pracitcal Observations, by the Rev. Thomas Scott, open to Psalm 90 (Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations), “my favorite com[mentar]y & psalm, both well adapted to my taste and years.” Scott’s commentary read, in part:

The sentiments indeed of the psalm are never unsuitable to our situation in the world: but they would be particularly adapted to the case of a pious man, in a time of pestilence, when thousands were swept away on every side of him.

Pintard’s complete cholera-related correspondence may be found in volume 4 (covering 1832-1833) of Letters from John Pintard to his Daughter Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson, 1816-1833 (New York: Printed for the New-York Historical Society, 1941). The book is available for perusal in the N-YHS library.

Two images from Horatio Bartley, Illustrations of Cholera Asphyxia in its Different Stages, Selected From Cases Treated at the Cholera Hospital, Rivington Street (New York: S.H. Jackson, 1832). No case studies accompany these images, which seem to show the same woman.

Image and case study from Horatio Bartley, Illustrations of Cholera Asphyxia in its Different Stages, Selected From Cases Treated at the Cholera Hospital, Rivington Street (New York: S.H. Jackson, 1832).  The initials on the image and case study differ slightly, but this is probably a typographical error.

“T.B. aged 40, born in England; temperate drinker. This man walked into the Hospital on the 25th of August, 10 o’clock P.M. and requested lodgings for the night, as he felt bad. In half an hour he was observed to rub his bowels and shortly after was attacked with cholera symptoms; cramps came on, and his extremities became cold; countenance and eyes sunken, pulse scarcely perceptible. Frictions with hot vinegar and cayenne pepper to the extremities and abdomen; and Sinapisms to the Epigastro. 11 o’clock, seems better and perspiring. 26th 1 o’clock, every symptom of colapse [sic] fully developed: pulse gone. Every thing was done that was necessary; and he died on 26th 10 o’clock P.M. after an illness of 12 hours.”

Image and case study from Horatio Bartley, Illustrations of Cholera Asphyxia in its Different Stages, Selected From Cases Treated at the Cholera Hospital, Rivington Street (New York: S.H. Jackson, 1832).  

“J.V. aged thirty-two, born in England, blacksmith; purging came on yesterday, and spasms and vomiting this morning; countenance sunken; surface cold; pulse scarcely perceptible; tongue cold and covered with yellow fur; spasms in the legs; admitted 27th July, at half-past ten o’clock, A.M. in state of colapse [sic]. Was ordered camphorated mercur. frictions; sinapisms to the abdomen. Was under medical treatment until 27th, and died at half past eight o’clock P.M. after an illness of ten hours.”

Image and case study from Horatio Bartley, Illustrations of Cholera Asphyxia in its Different Stages, Selected From Cases Treated at the Cholera Hospital, Rivington Street (New York: S.H. Jackson, 1832). The initials on the image and case study differ slightly, but this is probably a typographical error.

“N.W. Born in New-York, live in Goeric [Goerck] street; intemperate. Admitted at 12 o’clock, August 2d. was attacked with diarrhea and vomiting on the 31st July, had cramps last evening, secretion of urin scanty, surface of body warm, great pain in the head; tongue slightly furred. Was cupped on the temples and put under medical treatment. 5 O’clock P.M. has vomited up to this time every few minutes. Tinct. Camph. and Black Drops, were given to allay the vomiting. One o’clock P.M. has vomited only once since, no passage from the bowels, since admission. Seven o’clock P.M. an injection was given, and one scruple of calomel. August 5th, 2 o’clock P.M. was sent to the Convalescent Hospital, cured.”