Hart Island in the 21st Century: Moving Forward with NYC’s Public Cemetery

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Hart Island has had a long and strange history. Once a training ground for “colored” troops, it has gone on to house a lunatic asylum, various hospitals, a school for “vicious boys”, a nike missile base, and a rehabilitation center for drug addicted youth.  For the last 150 or so years it has been the site of NYC’s public cemetery or “potters field”, where those unclaimed by family members, too poor to have a proper burial, or victims of some kind of bureaucratic error are interred in mass graves.  Mothers of still born babies who did not have other options or were simply not informed as to the fate of their child’s body have signed releases allowing for their infant to be buried in mass graves, each containing 1000 corpses. To this date there are over 1 million remains buried on Hart Island.

 

One of the most painful issues is the tremendously complicated and prohibitive procedure family’s and loved ones must go through to visit the island, and even more so to request disinterment.  The artist Melinda Hunt has created the Hart Island Project to advocate for citizen’s right to information and access.  This has resulted in many improvements, but there is still much unresolved.

 

Based on your reading and research please address the following:

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Part I

 

Make an argument for improved access to visit the island.

 

-       why do you think access is important?

 

-       who should have access?

 

-       How will they gain access?

 

-       When should they have access?

 

-       Who will pay for transport?

 

-       Other issues

 

 

 

Part II

 

Make an argument limiting access to visit the island.

 

-       why should there be restrictions to access?

 

-       who should have access?

 

-       What are the dangers of unrestricted access?

 

-       Who should oversee?

 

-       Who will pay for oversight?

 

-       Other issues

 

 

 

Part III

 

Discuss your own impressions of the past, present, and future of Hart Island

 

-       What is your own view of burial rites? Discuss you own cultural background.

 

-       What are the family’s rights?

 

-       Who should be burying the dead?

 

-       Who should manage the cemetery? Parks? Corrections? Other branches of government?

 

 

 

Part IV

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Going forward, what changes can be made to the mass burial process?

 

- Research alternative, more environmentally friendly forms of burial. What are green burials? Considering some of the design proposals by Shannock, Hunt, Fisher; James Carroll, and others, what do you think might be an economical and environmentally sound approach for future burials?

 

 

 

Assignment Specifications:

 

Please use all available research material, i.e. Silent Beaches, articles and documentary linked on Wix, and SJU Databases, being sure to properly cite your sources, both in line and at the end of the essay.

 

Please note that the above are thinking points.  They are not meant to be given short answers, but to guide you in your essay writing.

 

Suggested length 3-4 pages

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Check the syllabus for the assignment's due date.