Episode 2.30 // Roosevelt Island’s Harrowing History

The New York Lunatic Asylum opened its doors in 1839 with a mission to humanely treat the mentally ill of NYC from the tranquil isolation of an island on the East River. However, as the years unfolded, cracks showed, trouble ensued and an intrepid reporter found herself within the institution’s walls, reporting its downfall for the world to see. Here’s the story of Roosevelt Island.

SOURCES:

• https://nyghosts.com/the-madness-of-roosevelt-island/

• https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1820?

• https://web.archive.org/web/20100901184604/http://nyc10044.com/timeln/timeline.html

• https://www.nps.gov/places/blackwell-s-island-new-york-city.htm

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Jackson-Davis

• https://kate-braithwaite.com/2019/05/14/if-walls-had-words-a-brief-history

• Damnation Island. Horn, Stacy. Kindle Edition.

• https://www.nps.gov/places/blackwell-s-island-new-york-city.htm

• http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/Blackwell%27s_Island_Asylum

• https://rihs.us/2020/03/30/charles-dickens-visit

• https://www.gutenberg.org/files/675/675-h/675-h.htm

• https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169073

• https://www.biography.com/news/inside-nelly-bly-10-days-madhouse

• https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html

• https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1887/09/26/100933959.pdf

• https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ajp.2007.164.4.581

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Island

• https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/roosevelt-island-rich-frightening-history-article-1.2418027

• https://octagonnyc.com/

• https://rooseveltislander.blogspot.com/2009/01/creepy-spirits-scare-crap-out-of.html

TRANSCRIPT:

Roosevelt Island.pdf

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