Hart Island holds a million graves of babies and unidentified and poor people

By Andrew Purcell
March 30 2014 - 3:00am
Elaine Joseph with her son on Hart Isalnd. Each white post marks 150 adults or 1000 babies buried. Photo: Andrew Purcell
Elaine Joseph with her son on Hart Isalnd. Each white post marks 150 adults or 1000 babies buried. Photo: Andrew Purcell

Hart Island has had many uses since the city of New York purchased it in 1868, but its primary function has been as a burial ground for the poor, the unidentified and the unclaimed. On this strip of land off the Bronx shore, ruined buildings that were once a borstal, a quarantine for tuberculosis patients and a lunatic asylum are surrounded by white posts, each marking the final resting place of either 150 adults or 1000 infants.

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