Mapping the Boston Poor: Inmates of the Boston Almshouse, 1795–1801

Author(s)

Ruth Wallis Herndon, Bowling Green State UniversityFollow
Amilcar Challú, Bowling Green State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article examines postrevolutionary Boston through evidence about its poorest inhabitants, those admitted to the town’s almshouse from 1795 to 1801. Charts and maps constructed from Boston Almshouse records and geographical data about Boston for these years reveal the characteristics of the Almshouse inmates, as well as their residential location before entering the facility and their mobility after entering it a ªrst time. This study is part of a broader project that applies Geographical Information Systems (gis) to analyze and visualize patterns evinced by the inmates of the Boston Almshouse during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although the conclusions apply to a short time period and a particular subset of the population, they should elicit further research about how marginalized groups navigated the city of Boston, as well as other eighteenth-century cities.

Copyright Statement

Publisher PDF

Repository Citation

Wallis Herndon, Ruth and Challú, Amilcar, "Mapping the Boston Poor: Inmates of the Boston Almshouse, 1795–1801" (2013). History Faculty Publications. 6.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/hist_pub/6

Publication Date

Summer 2013

Publication Title

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Start Page No.

61

End Page No.

81