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Source Description
In 1874, the State Board of Health of Massachusetts divided the Commonwealth into “health districts,” areas assigned to physicians tasked with documenting the locations of prevalent diseases. This map denotes these health districts, along with the polluted marshlands and low-lying ground believed to spread diseases such as consumption, cholera, and malaria. If dark, damp, low land promoted illness, health reformers thought, then the opposite must hold true. In the years to come, Bostonians would increasingly seek out “breathing-places”: well-lit, dry, green spaces, where they might take in the fresh air for their health.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
3f463966q
label
Map of Boston
core
obj
dtoType
map
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
3f463966q
contentType
map
stage
normalized
title
Map of Boston
description
In 1874, the State Board of Health of Massachusetts divided the Commonwealth into “health districts,” areas assigned to physicians tasked with documenting the locations of prevalent diseases. This map denotes these health districts, along with the polluted marshlands and low-lying ground believed to spread diseases such as consumption, cholera, and malaria. If dark, damp, low land promoted illness, health reformers thought, then the opposite must hold true. In the years to come, Bostonians would increasingly seek out “breathing-places”: well-lit, dry, green spaces, where they might take in the fresh air for their health.
date
["[ca. 1870–1879]"]
year
1870
rights
No known copyright restrictions.
rightsUri
No known restrictions on use.
reuseAllowed
no restrictions
language
English
identifierLocal
06_01_001170
creators
Heliotype Printing Co
institution
Boston Public Library
collections
Urban Maps
Boston and New England Maps
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection
subjects
Public health--Massachusetts--Boston--Maps
Boston (Mass.)--Maps
subjectsGeographic
Boston
Massachusetts
North and Central America
Suffolk (county)
United States
genreBasic
Maps
typeOfResource
Cartographic
country
United States
state
Massachusetts
county
Suffolk
city
Boston
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
pageCount
1
source
import
pubPlace
Boston, Mass
publisher
Heliotype
Source extras
institutionArkId
sf268508b
collectionArkId
9s1621613
schema:latitude
42.35
schema:longitude
-71.05
extent
1 map : col. ; 60 x 52 cm.
notes
Relief shown by hachures.
Distance measured radially from City Hall.
hasTranscription
no
dcId
3f463966q
type
map
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
92624a71d9e78c9c