Medical and Social Causes of Dependence: Data from New York State’s County Poorhouses 1900-1915

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

More than 50 poorhouses were in operation across New York State at the turn of the twentieth century. State law required the gathering of information about each resident. The New York State Archives has made this data accessible through Ancestry.com and Vassar College students are transcribing those records. The resulting New York Poorhouse Geodatabase facilitates analyses. This poster focuses on the “cause of dependence” as listed on forms between 1900 and 1915. From those data we interrogate stereotypes about county poorhouse residents. Preliminary analyses show that 25% of the population were experiencing limb injuries, rheumatism, and paralysis including those labeled as crippled. Social causes for poverty, including joblessness and abandonment comprised about 4% of the population. While 26% of residents were listed as homeless or destitute, the majority also include a medical cause. The state’s poor were too sick to be employed therefore poorhouse studies should overlap with disability studies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025   •
• 2025 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow