Writings on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic by Eric Cimino
New England Historical Association , 2020
In light of the Covid-19 Pandemic and its devastating effects on New York City, I examine the cit... more In light of the Covid-19 Pandemic and its devastating effects on New York City, I examine the city's response to the last major pandemic that struck the United States: Influenza in 1918.
New York History , 2024
This article examines the combined efforts of the Nurses’ Emergency Council (NEC), settlement hou... more This article examines the combined efforts of the Nurses’ Emergency Council (NEC), settlement houses, and the Department of Health during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic ("Spanish Flu") in New York City. To coordinate public health nursing, the NEC united the settlements and municipal agencies into an umbrella organization that was chaired by Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement. Together, the NEC and the Health Department recruited a corps of nurses to treat influenza patients, primarily in their homes.
Historical accounts of the 1918 Pandemic often emphasize the incompetence of American cities in dealing with influenza’s spread. New York’s Health Commissioner Royal Copeland, for example, is portrayed as a political hack without the adequate knowledge to successfully manage an epidemic. However, if we shift our focus from Copeland to a micro-history of the NEC, what emerges is a city with the institutional experience well suited to respond to a health emergency. The NEC rose to the challenge of coordinating a vast network of visiting nurses that helped keep New York’s death rate among the lowest on the East Coast.
Writings on Titanic and New York City, 2012-2021 by Eric Cimino
Voyage: Journal of the Titanic International Society, 2017
This paper highlights the rescue efforts of the ship Carpathia (its captain, crew, and medical st... more This paper highlights the rescue efforts of the ship Carpathia (its captain, crew, and medical staff) as it came to Titanic's aid. It also examines the central role that Carpathia's passengers played in the relief efforts once the survivors were on-board, and concludes with a look at the survivors' committee that Margaret Brown formed as the ship headed for New York City.
New England Historical Association, 2012
This paper explores how disaster relief was carried out in New York City in the immediate afterma... more This paper explores how disaster relief was carried out in New York City in the immediate aftermath of the Titanic's sinking. The paper is the first part of a larger project (now in progress) on short- and long-term aid for those survivors who remained in the United States.
Voyage: Journal of the Titanic International Society, 2019
This article, published in two parts, combines insights form travel writing, history, and urban s... more This article, published in two parts, combines insights form travel writing, history, and urban studies to explore the social welfare milieu of early 20th century New York City and its connection to disaster relief efforts for Titanic survivors. Part Two appeared in Voyage 108 in Summer 2019 and is also posted on Academia.edu.
Voyage: Journal of the Titanic International Society, 2019
This article, published in two parts, combines insights form travel writing, history, and urban s... more This article, published in two parts, combines insights form travel writing, history, and urban studies to explore the social welfare milieu of early 20th century New York City and its connection to disaster relief efforts for Titanic survivors. It should be read with Part One, which appeared in Voyage 107 and is also posted on Academia.edu.
New York Achives, 2019
Gina Bellafante wrote in the New York Times on 3/1/20 that the city would soon feel the impact of... more Gina Bellafante wrote in the New York Times on 3/1/20 that the city would soon feel the impact of its hospital shortage when the Covid-19 Virus arrived. She specifically singled out the closure and sale of St. Vincent's Hospital, noting its replacement by luxury condominiums. My article here provides an example of St. Vincent Hospital in action at the turn of the twentieth century when it cared for over a hundred Titanic survivors. Its disaster expertise is now sorely missed in New York City.
St. Vincent's Hospital was founded and run by the religious order Sisters of Charity in the Nineteenth Century. This article is part of a larger project that examines the full scope of disaster relief for Titanic survivors in New York and London from 1912 to 1950.
New York Archives, 2021
This article uses the letters of Mayor William Gaynor of New York City to examine how the city an... more This article uses the letters of Mayor William Gaynor of New York City to examine how the city and its citizens responded to the sinking of Titanic in 1912. The New York Times recently brought to light how people coped with the tragedy by drafting poetry, much of it mediocre, and sending it the newspaper. Similarly, my article explores, among other things, the Titanic-themed poetry that the mayor received from his constituents.
On the poetry sent to the New York Times, see "The Titanic Sank. So did These Commemorative Poems," by Tina Jordan, New York Times, 17 April 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/books/review/what-is-poetry.html
Papers on the Travelers' Aid Movement by Eric Cimino
New York History, 2016
The prominent philanthropist, Grace Hoadley Dodge, founded the Travelers' Aid Society as a respon... more The prominent philanthropist, Grace Hoadley Dodge, founded the Travelers' Aid Society as a response to the moral and sexual dangers that she believed confronted single women as they entered American cities in search of work and leisure. Moral reformers like Dodge assumed that traveling women who were adrift from their family and community existed on the “border line of tragedy,” where the slightest misstep could result in a downward spiral that culminated in white slavery, the coerced prostitution of white (European and Euro-American) women. To prevent this tragedy, the Travelers' Aid Society provided social work to at-risk travelers at New York City’s train stations and piers. This paper explores the society's early years in New York and uses theories of discipline and empowerment to assess its work.
New York Archives , 2020
A short piece on the Travelers' Aid Society of New York in the early twentieth century. Emphasiz... more A short piece on the Travelers' Aid Society of New York in the early twentieth century. Emphasizes the organization's anti-white slavery (anti-trafficking) work, as well as its encounters with homeless travelers.
The Journal of San Diego History, 2015
The Travelers' Aid Society of San Diego was established in 1915 to provide social work to the wom... more The Travelers' Aid Society of San Diego was established in 1915 to provide social work to the women who visited the Panama-California world's fair. This paper is an account of its creation and activities during the two exposition years.
Thesis Chapters by Eric Cimino
This dissertation examines the travelers’ aid movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth... more This dissertation examines the travelers’ aid movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through a case study of the Travelers’ Aid Society of New York. Travelers’ aid was part of a larger movement for moral reform that arose as a response to social problems
unleashed by industrialization, urban growth, and mass immigration. Moral reformers believed that vices such as prostitution were wreaking havoc on individuals, communities, and, consequently, on the national fabric. To combat prostitution, reformers launched a variety of
campaigns in both the United States and Europe, one of which targeted a practice known as“white slavery,” i.e. the coercion of European and Euro-American (“white”) women into prostitution. The Travelers’ Aid Society of New York (TAS) was founded in 1907 as an antiwhite slavery organization. Its mission was to prevent female travelers from falling victim to white slavery by providing social work to them at train stations and piers.
This study of the TAS supports an interpretation of social welfare that integrates two fundamental, often competing, concepts: discipline and empowerment. I argue that the TAS’s disciplinary elements were moderate, which allowed it to frequently act as a productive mediator
between travelers and their new environment. This was especially true during the TAS’s period as a women’s organization, 1906-1910. We see more evidence of discipline in the ensuing period when the TAS transitioned to a mixed-sex organization led by men and its anti-white
slavery activism became more pronounced. However, its emphasis
on white slavery should not obscure the prevalence of more ordinary crime at the city’s transportation hubs. Subsequently, TAS vigilance thwarted criminal attempts on women’s bodies and property.
This Thesis is one of the few studies that focuses exclusively on the student experience at the B... more This Thesis is one of the few studies that focuses exclusively on the student experience at the Bauhaus school of art, architecture, and design in Germany. Themes include the Bauhaus students' involvement with mysticism, communism, and Nazism.
Book Reviews by Eric Cimino
New York History, 2024
Review of Book Madness: A Story of Book Collectors in America. By Denise Gigante. New Haven, CT: ... more Review of Book Madness: A Story of Book Collectors in America. By Denise Gigante. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022. New York History 104:1 (Summer 2024): 198-200.
Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work, 2024
Review of Selling French Sex: Prostitution, Trafficking, and Global Migrations. By Elisa Camiscio... more Review of Selling French Sex: Prostitution, Trafficking, and Global Migrations. By Elisa Camiscioli. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2024. Affilia (2024)..
New York History , 2024
Review of Pandemic Re-Awakenings: The Forgotten and Unforgotten Spanish Flu of 1918-1919. Ed. by ... more Review of Pandemic Re-Awakenings: The Forgotten and Unforgotten Spanish Flu of 1918-1919. Ed. by Guy Beiner. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. New York History 104:2 (Winter 2023-2024): 419-22.
Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2023
Review of Hurricane Jim Crow: How the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 Shaped the Lowcountry South.... more Review of Hurricane Jim Crow: How the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 Shaped the Lowcountry South. By Caroline Grego. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2022: Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 22:4 (2023): 541-42.
New York History, 2023
Review of The Fulton Fish Market: A History. By Jonathan Rees. New York: Columbia University Pres... more Review of The Fulton Fish Market: A History. By Jonathan Rees. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022. New York History (Summer 2023): 124-26.
Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2023
Review of The Great Disappearing Act: Germans in New York City, 1880-1930. By Christina Ziegler-M... more Review of The Great Disappearing Act: Germans in New York City, 1880-1930. By Christina Ziegler-McPherson. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2022.
New York History, 2022
Review of Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London, and Paris. By Chris Pearso... more Review of Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London, and Paris. By Chris Pearson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021.
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Writings on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic by Eric Cimino
Historical accounts of the 1918 Pandemic often emphasize the incompetence of American cities in dealing with influenza’s spread. New York’s Health Commissioner Royal Copeland, for example, is portrayed as a political hack without the adequate knowledge to successfully manage an epidemic. However, if we shift our focus from Copeland to a micro-history of the NEC, what emerges is a city with the institutional experience well suited to respond to a health emergency. The NEC rose to the challenge of coordinating a vast network of visiting nurses that helped keep New York’s death rate among the lowest on the East Coast.
Writings on Titanic and New York City, 2012-2021 by Eric Cimino
St. Vincent's Hospital was founded and run by the religious order Sisters of Charity in the Nineteenth Century. This article is part of a larger project that examines the full scope of disaster relief for Titanic survivors in New York and London from 1912 to 1950.
On the poetry sent to the New York Times, see "The Titanic Sank. So did These Commemorative Poems," by Tina Jordan, New York Times, 17 April 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/books/review/what-is-poetry.html
Papers on the Travelers' Aid Movement by Eric Cimino
Thesis Chapters by Eric Cimino
unleashed by industrialization, urban growth, and mass immigration. Moral reformers believed that vices such as prostitution were wreaking havoc on individuals, communities, and, consequently, on the national fabric. To combat prostitution, reformers launched a variety of
campaigns in both the United States and Europe, one of which targeted a practice known as“white slavery,” i.e. the coercion of European and Euro-American (“white”) women into prostitution. The Travelers’ Aid Society of New York (TAS) was founded in 1907 as an antiwhite slavery organization. Its mission was to prevent female travelers from falling victim to white slavery by providing social work to them at train stations and piers.
This study of the TAS supports an interpretation of social welfare that integrates two fundamental, often competing, concepts: discipline and empowerment. I argue that the TAS’s disciplinary elements were moderate, which allowed it to frequently act as a productive mediator
between travelers and their new environment. This was especially true during the TAS’s period as a women’s organization, 1906-1910. We see more evidence of discipline in the ensuing period when the TAS transitioned to a mixed-sex organization led by men and its anti-white
slavery activism became more pronounced. However, its emphasis
on white slavery should not obscure the prevalence of more ordinary crime at the city’s transportation hubs. Subsequently, TAS vigilance thwarted criminal attempts on women’s bodies and property.
Book Reviews by Eric Cimino
Historical accounts of the 1918 Pandemic often emphasize the incompetence of American cities in dealing with influenza’s spread. New York’s Health Commissioner Royal Copeland, for example, is portrayed as a political hack without the adequate knowledge to successfully manage an epidemic. However, if we shift our focus from Copeland to a micro-history of the NEC, what emerges is a city with the institutional experience well suited to respond to a health emergency. The NEC rose to the challenge of coordinating a vast network of visiting nurses that helped keep New York’s death rate among the lowest on the East Coast.
St. Vincent's Hospital was founded and run by the religious order Sisters of Charity in the Nineteenth Century. This article is part of a larger project that examines the full scope of disaster relief for Titanic survivors in New York and London from 1912 to 1950.
On the poetry sent to the New York Times, see "The Titanic Sank. So did These Commemorative Poems," by Tina Jordan, New York Times, 17 April 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/books/review/what-is-poetry.html
unleashed by industrialization, urban growth, and mass immigration. Moral reformers believed that vices such as prostitution were wreaking havoc on individuals, communities, and, consequently, on the national fabric. To combat prostitution, reformers launched a variety of
campaigns in both the United States and Europe, one of which targeted a practice known as“white slavery,” i.e. the coercion of European and Euro-American (“white”) women into prostitution. The Travelers’ Aid Society of New York (TAS) was founded in 1907 as an antiwhite slavery organization. Its mission was to prevent female travelers from falling victim to white slavery by providing social work to them at train stations and piers.
This study of the TAS supports an interpretation of social welfare that integrates two fundamental, often competing, concepts: discipline and empowerment. I argue that the TAS’s disciplinary elements were moderate, which allowed it to frequently act as a productive mediator
between travelers and their new environment. This was especially true during the TAS’s period as a women’s organization, 1906-1910. We see more evidence of discipline in the ensuing period when the TAS transitioned to a mixed-sex organization led by men and its anti-white
slavery activism became more pronounced. However, its emphasis
on white slavery should not obscure the prevalence of more ordinary crime at the city’s transportation hubs. Subsequently, TAS vigilance thwarted criminal attempts on women’s bodies and property.