Author: John Epp

1883 Pensioners Final Project

John Epp

Data Description

For this project I chose to look at the 1883 Pensioners. I wanted to explore a data set that involved some aspect of war but with a different twist. When we look at war data it is usually casualty figures that are the main topic of discussion. People forget that for those that are wounded and the families of those killed in action, some sort compensation, a pension, is given as a way of saying thank you for your service and to help alleviate the difficulties that may result from their time in the service. The reasons for the pension can be anything from visible wounds, to psychological trauma, to the loss of the head of household—the breadwinner.

When looking at any given data set, you are almost certainly going to be given numeric data, textual data, and/or geographic data in some quantity. In regards to the 1883 Pensioners data set we are given all three. But, each is represented in a different amount. The textual data is on a very large-scale, as is the numeric figures. There are dozens and dozens of different categories for wounds. From gunshot wounds, to diseases and illnesses, to amputations, to being widowed, the list is extensive. We are also given the names of each person and the month and year of the first pension claim.

For each category that is listed, a number of sub-categories of numeric data is also given. The most interesting of which comes in the form of the monthly rate of payment received by the individual. With this number you can then twist it around to see the average monthly rate, the median monthly rate or the monthly sum. What this allows someone reading this data to do is to compare and contrast the various pension claims to see how they stack up in severity, in terms of monetary compensation. Another aspect of numeric data is seen in the number of records of each pension claim. This too allows us to see what the largest pension claim was.

Geographical data is present in this data set. However, an address is not given. Instead, it is referred to as “Post Office.” This is the city or town that the individual is currently living in at the time of pension submission. This does not provide much in terms of useful information as this list includes individuals strictly in the Capital region. If an address had been provided, we could then create a map of the city of Albany along with the various outskirts and examine just where these veterans or their families are living. Are they generally in poorer neighborhoods as is the general trend with war enlistees? Is it an area that is higher concentration African-American or Caucasian? Unfortunately, when this list was compiled they were not expecting someone to look at it decades later and attempt to create patterns and trends from it. No, it was instead meant to organize those that were receiving government pensions for their role in the Civil War.

Data Visualization 1

For my first visualization, I wanted to take a look at the number of records for claiming a pension. In this visual we will be looking at the “Number of Records” tab.

At first glance it does not look like much. I wanted to create a story that correlated with the figures that show that most of the deaths associated with the Civil War were in fact, not combat related. When I say combat related I am talking about gunshot wounds, hand-to-hand combat and artillery barrages. Instead, the number one killer of soldiers, on both sides, was dysentery (www.civilwar.org). Most of the soldiers that fought during the Civil War were from the rural countryside. They lived their lives on small mom and pop farms and interacted with only a handful of other people outside their community. When you do not have much contact with significantly larger groups of people, your immune system becomes more susceptible to contracting diseases and illnesses that others, from a city for example, would not come down with. For this reason, a substantial number of the deaths during the war were from disease as these farmers interacted with hundreds and thousands of other men for the first time. Other illnesses include smallpox, malaria and chicken pox. Because the medical field had not advanced to the point of having proper medicine to treat this diseases and viruses, large outbreaks were not uncommon with both the Union and Confederates.

While it was my initial goal to show this pattern in my data set, the opposite, in fact, developed. Now before going any further I need to emphasize something about this data set. This data is not an accurate representation of the makeup of soldiers in the Civil War, on either side. It is a rather small sample size of just under 1,000 claims. A claim does not necessary entail that they played a direct role in the Civil War, rather it could be the family applying for a pension for a deceased family member. In looking at the data in the “Number of Records” tab, we see that the largest number of claims fall under the category of Mother/Father/Minor, followed by General Wounds, Gunshot Wounds, Loss of Limb due to Combat, Disease, Injuries, Other, and lastly Amputations. According to this graph, there were a total of 918 records. 408 of these fall under the category of Mother/Father/Minor and only 51 falling under Disease. This data set is telling a different story than what the national story is. Instead of having most of the cases be relegated to be disease related, they are instead a second-party claiming the pension, for example a widow. The General Wounds are second with 215 respective cases, these being injuries as a result of chopping wood or breaking a bone. While there is a significantly large difference between claims as a result of disease or illness and being widowed, it can be safely assumed that a portion of the widowed claims are a result of their loved one dying from some sort of disease.

Process Documentation 1:

All of the groups that are represented in all my visualizations have numerous sub-categories within. For example, if you look at the Gunshot wounds bar, what you have is different types of gunshot wounds making up the 119 total claims. There are gunshot wounds to the head, face, jaw, left leg, right foot, etc. This visual is fairly new. When I first set out on this journey, this particular example was not composed of a neatly grouped list. Instead, I had every single different type of gunshot wound, disease, illness; you think of it and I probably had it listed. Now you would think that the process to create categories to house all the various wounds would be fairly simple. Well, you would be dead wrong. You see, when each reason for filing a pension claim was originally listed, there was no universal language or code to organize things. It was all dependent on the person writing at that moment. Each person had their own unique abbreviations and wordings for various items. This meant that some reasons could be grouped under more than one category. After I was able to discern what should be placed where, I chose to use the default colors that were given to me each time I dragged the “Grouped Wounds” Dimension into the table. These colored groups represented my columns. Next, for my rows, I decided to utilize the “Number of records” measure to show the amount of claims filed in each bar. It was not complete but to further show the differences between each column, I chose to show bars with higher amounts of pension claims as larger in width than those with much smaller amounts. While this makes sense, in practice it can create a problem in viewing such thin bars.

Argument 1:

As I mentioned earlier, the main argument for this particular visualization is that disease and illness were not a particularly large contributor to pension claims, in terms of this data set on the Capital region. Poor hygiene along with interacting with large groups of other soldiers resulted in numerous cases of malaria, dysentery, etc. Outbreaks within regiments were not uncommon and men would often be forced to leave the service to due being sick. This is backed up the need to apply for a pension. Because the people listed in this census are from a highly populated region in the northeast, for the most part at least, their immune systems have been able to build up some sort of tolerance to the various illnesses out there. I would argue that this is the main reason for the low numbers of disease and illness claims filed by these men and their families. This assumption is supported by looking at other pension records that are available (Google Books: 291-303). For example, if we were to look at the city of Utica in Oneida county, we would see a rather large list of wounds that pertain to injuries sustained in battle or by other means. While there are cases of diseases and illnesses, they are trumped by the various wounds. We can also look at the town in which I grew up in, Clinton, also in Oneida County. By today’s standards, Clinton is a very small village. At last check, the population was just under 2,000 so we can only imagine how much smaller it was over 150 years ago. Out of the list of pensions for Clinton, there is only one entry that claims an illness: dysentery which was the number one killer during the Civil War. But the remaining entries are either combat related or because a widow or family member is claiming the pension because they lost a family member in the war. The north was much more populated than the south during the war, same goes today as well, so it makes sense that most of the pensions were in response to wounds other than disease and illness. If you look at South Carolina, (Google Books: 184-189) a startling trend emerges. Here we see the opposite of the north. Instead of mostly gunshot wounds, we see an overwhelming number of widows and illnesses. This can be explained by the sheer number of southern males that were lost during the war as a majority of the fighting took place in the south. The south is also nearly exclusively rural, hence the hundreds of plantations, so the increase in illness cases can be explained by the weaker immune systems of the Confederate Army.

Data Visualization 2:

For my second visualization I chose to examine the role of women during the Civil War. While women have always played key roles in every conflict the United States has fought in, the exact extent to how much they can be involved has always been controversial. Only in the past few years has combat roles been opened up for women to be involved in though they are required to pass the same physical requirements as their male counterparts. But during the Civil War women played a much more behind-the-scenes type of role. Most often referred to as Camp Followers, these women did exactly as their title suggests: they followed the train of soldiers. These were women who, generally, did not have much at home after their husband, brother, father, etc., went off to war. If they had no means to sustain themselves and make money, they often followed their loved ones as they went off to war. They acted as cooks, nurses, cleaners, and prostitutes. Some even went as far as dressing up as a man (Sam Smith) and fighting on the front lines, some even died (www.civilwar.org). While they no where were close in numbers as the men, it is believed that around 500 women secretly fought in the war. Probably the most famous woman fighter is that of Jennie Hodgers, better known as “Albert Cashier” (Civil War Trust). She enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry on August 6, 1862 and would go to fight in over 40 different engagements. It is also believed that at one point she was captured by the Confederates but she broke out of prison and returned to duty. She served three years before her unit was discharged for heavy losses due to combat and illnesses. But her story does not end here. She went on to continue living under the guise of a man, collecting a pension, and would only be discovered in 1910 when she was hit by a car, though the hospital kept her secret quiet. However, 3 years later, as dementia set on she was discovered and forced to live the remainder of her life as a female. She would die 2 years later and be buried in her uniform with full military honor.

Process Documentation 2:

The creation process for this visual is nearly identical to the first. The main differences here are the different dimensions and measures that were used. I chose to have a horizontal graph for this one in order to break the data up into male vs. female. In terms of data, I included type of injury sustained, the average monthly payout and the number of cases for each category. As with the first visual, I created larger bars for the categories that included larger number of records and smaller bars for the categories that included a small number of records.

Argumentation 2:

As I have mentioned earlier in the first visual, this data set is a rather small sample size. To accurately create a significant argument, we would need to also be graphing other 1883 pensions from nearby counties. Luckily, Albany county seems to have had its fair share of females taking part in the fighting during the Civil War. Whether they were injured while fighting or were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time as a camp follower is impossible to know for they may have never been discovered. In any case, what we have in our data set is 2 records of females sustaining gunshot wounds and then gaining a pension as a result. In scouring the nearly 1,000 entries, I was unable to find their names which may have led to further research and possibly finding out if they had in fact disguised themselves. Nevertheless, these two women received an average pension of $4.00 a month compared to her male counterpart whom received an average of $5.93. The sample size is way too small and distorted in favor of the men with 117 records of gunshot wounds so it is difficult to say whether they received such a low amount because they were women or because their wounds were not as severe as some of the men. In any case, they did in fact receive a pension for gunshot wounds. Even if we take out the gunshot wounds from the data, historians know for a fact that women played a key role in the Civil War. Clara Barton herself, founder of the Red Cross, was a nurse during the war. Women took on every aspect of the war that the men did including fighting and performing dirty tasks such as amputating limbs. While historians acknowledge their contributions, I do not believe classes teach how much women played a direct role in the war. Up until the Fall of senior year in college, I was unaware of the camp followers. To show that they played this large role in the war, we should be teaching more about them.

Further research Questions:

  1. Were pension claims during the Civil War and claims 20 years after the end of the war greatly differ in terms of monthly payments for similar injuries?
    1. To figure this out I would rearrange the data set in chronological order. I attempted to do this but my efforts were futile as I could not figure out how to correctly get Tableau to do it. With a lot of time on my hands I suppose I could create an Excel spreadsheet that is in chronological order and could even uncover more patterns in the data that we are unable to see otherwise.
  2. Did the pensions differ based on whether you served as a Union soldier or a Confederate?
    1. In a preliminary scour of the Arkansas, Missouri, and South Carolina pension rolls, this would seem to not be the case. No matter the wound, you received nearly the same amount whether or not you were a northerner or a southerner.
  3. Were African-American veterans afforded the same treatment by the Pension Bureau?
    1. When I first chose this data set, I was under the belief that this was a list of African-American soldiers and their families that were receiving pensions. I quickly learned the opposite, that it was probably whites that represented the bulk of the data. That is not to say that African-Americans are not present on the list, however I would imagine if they were a significant contributor to the war effort (which they were), wouldn’t the Pension Bureau have a separate column for race? Every 1883 Pension roll uses the same layout with the name, record number, cause for pension, etc. None of them include the race of the individual. So this begs the question of if they just did not deem that important enough to distinguish in the records or did they just not offer any pensions to African-American veterans. This would, of course, violate the 14th Amendment. I would bet that with some more digging, one could uncover the records of African-Americans receiving pensions, I just do not know where to look for that.

 

Bibliography

“620,000 Soldiers Died during the Civil War, Two-thirds Died of Disease, Not Wounds: WHY?” Civil War Trust. Accessed May 11, 2016. http://www.civilwar.org/education/pdfs/civil-was-curriculum-medicine.pdf.

Council on Foreign Relations. Accessed May 12, 2016. http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/jennie-hodgers.html.

United States Pension Bureau. “List of Pensioners on the Roll January 1, 1883.” Google Books. January 1, 1883. Accessed May 11, 2016. https://books.google.com/books?id=aLkqAAAAMAAJ.

United States Pension Bureau. “List of Pensioners on the Roll January 1, 1883.” Google Books. January 1, 1883. Accessed May 12, 2016. https://books.google.com/books?id=t7oqAAAAMAAJ.

Smith, Sam. Council on Foreign Relations. Accessed May 12, 2016. http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/untold-stories/female-soldiers-in-the-civil.html.

Do we value women less than men when it comes to war?

John Epp

An unfortunate aspect of war is the sheer amount of casualties that are suffered on both sides of the conflict. Throughout the history of the United States war has been an ever-present facet of out society. Most of us have difficulty remembering a time when America was not involved in some sort of armed conflict. During the 19th century, the United States faced a series of conflicts within the confines of her borders that resulted in some of the largest and bloodiest fighting seen to date.

The 1883 Pensioners lists hundreds of casualties stemming from the early 19th century, through the War of 1812 and through the American Civil War. Within this list lies the names of the pension recipient, the cause for which the pension is being offered, and the date in which the first payment was submitted. At first glance this census, of sorts, provides few details to create much of an argument out of other than it can be assumed these pensions were direct results of the various conflicts America fought during the century. However, upon looking through many of the reasons for the pension, we as historians can uncover some rather interesting little tid bits. First off, gunshot wounds, while the major cause for a pension, was not the sole injury sustained. In many cases diseases and illnesses could result in a person obtaining a monthly check. Epilepsy receives an average payout of $8.00 whereas chronic diarrhea saw a person receiving half of that. While you will have difficulty arguing that chronic diarrhea should be classified as something the government should include as reasoning for a pension, it is clear that it was a rather rampant problem that plagued many people during this period.

An argument that I would like to bring up concerning a rather heartbreaking part of this data is the amount of dependent mothers and widows represented within the data. Females makeup roughly fifty-percent of the population, give-or-take, but when we, as students of history, think about war we directly assume the victims are male. We forget that there are women back home caring for the family and painfully trying to make ends meet. Today strides have been made to recognize this forgotten section of society as women are increasingly making up larger and larger sections of the armed forces. But in the 19th century, women were decades from achieving the right to vote, let alone go off to war. So the subsection of pensions for women that are represented in this data has to do with them becoming widowed and needing to care for a family, presumably. The average payout here is the same as epilepsy at $8.00 a month. This would have the same buying power as around $250.00 today. $250.00 is not a lot of money one bit considering the various bills now accrued by the widow from her husband and also raising her children. There are numerous different injuries including in this data set but to pull one out to compare: an injury to the right foot received $25.00, over three times the amount that a widowed mother is now receiving.

There is no doubt that serious wounds such as amputations and other handicaps sustained as a result of battle require a large degree of money. But by giving women a measly $8.00, I would argue, society is valuing their life and their contributions to society in a much smaller degree. This can be seen throughout the history of the United States and around the world. Women have tended to be treated as inferior to men. They had been refused the right to vote up until 1919, lacked equal rights within a marriage, have their bodies regulated by church and state alike, are refused entry into certain military branches, the list goes on and on. During a time when women had difficulty even obtaining a job, they are now without the love of their life and their breadwinner. How, as a society, could this be allowed to happen?

19th century African American war pensions in Albany, NY

John Epp

My initial goal entering this project with this data set was to create a visual that would show how pensions progressed over the century (1806-1883). While I was unable to accomplish this for my initial “rough draft,” I do believe it is possible. I encountered issues immediately as the dates are not in chronological order within the spreadsheet. Instead, the data had been entered in alphabetical order based on the recipient’s name. While this is the correct way to do this for official documentation, it poses an issue for someone like me that hopes to find trends in the data. Another problem that was readily apparent was the lack of explanation describing the wound or reason for receiving a pension. While most of the descriptions are easy to interpret, some are difficult to discern and makes analysis a bit more troublesome.

 

For my first visualization, I decided to keep things simple. On the left hand side you will find the various wounds and reasons for receiving a pension. The columns represent the average amount that was paid out on a monthly basis. I also sorted the data from the highest monthly payment through the lowest. By looking at the data this way we can see that a soldier who, as a result of either a combat injury or other military related accident, came to become fully blind. He received, on average, $72. This of course fluctuates when looking at each individual case but what I am interested in is the average. To put this into perspective, using an inflation calculator, we can see that in 1845 (using this as a mid-point), $72 would have the same buying power today as $1849.28. It is important to take this with a grain of salt as statistics are not readily available pre-1913.

 

By looking at the various dates of allowance, we can conclude that most of the injuries sustained were a direct result of the Civil War (1861-1865). The many different gunshot wounds received shows that not only were African-Americans involved in the war in some capacity, but that they were actively involved in harsh fighting on the front lines. The people listed in this census are only ones that live in the Albany, NY region and who actually submitted a formal request for a government pension for their injuries. 921 names are represented on this census. Imagine the number of African Americans that did not sustain injuries and are from other locations scattered across the many states. Just by thinking of this, we can conclude that not only did African Americans fight in the war, but they made a large contribution to it as well.

 

As a final note, in my final project I hope to have my copy of the census worked out to be organized in chronological order rather than alphabetical. I believe this will help paint an interesting picture that will help show how one injury may receive less, or more, compensation than that of one reported decades later.

Museums of Albany

John Epp

The Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence, located at 194 Livingston Avenue was a vital cog in the Underground Railroad which operated during the 19th century. The purpose of the railroad was to aid runaway slaves from the South through the North and to safety, specifically in Canada. This particular home was owned by Stephen and Harriet Myers whom also had other properties throughout the city, however this is the only surviving one today.  “The Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence.” 2016. Underground Railroad History Project. Accessed February 29. http://undergroundrailroadhistory.org/the-stephen-and-harriet-myers-residence/.

Home to the Albany Country Historical Association, the Ten Broeck Mansion is the former residence of General Abraham Ten Broeck and his wife, Elizabeth Van Rensselaer. General Ten Broeck served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and commanded the New York Militia at the Battle of Saratoga. He would later go on to serve as a mayor of Albany, a state Senator and a judge. “Ten Broeck Mansion | Albany NY.” 2016. Accessed February 29. http://www.tenbroeckmansion.org/.

Located on Washington Avenue, the Albany Institute of History & Art is home to a multitude of collections ranging from local art to an exhibit on Ancient Egypt which includes an actual mummy with sarcophagus! Built in 1791, it is honored to have the privilege of being one of the oldest museums in the United States. I have had the pleasure of visiting the museum on a number of occasions and truly enjoy each trip. “Albany Museum – Albany Institute of History and Art.” 2016. Accessed February 29. http://www.albanyinstitute.org/.

At a cost of half a billion dollars (adjusted for inflation, original cost was $25 million), the New York State Capital building began constructing in 1867 and would require a staggering thirty-two years to complete. Noted for its architectural styles which include the Italian and French Renaissances along with Romanesque, the Capital is home to the Governor’s office along with the NYS Assembly and the Senate. The famed “Fire of 1911” nearly destroyed the entire building, fortunately all was not lost. Unfortunately, much of the library and archives were lost. A major aesthetic element of the interior are the elaborate staircases containing the intricate carvings of notable figures such as George Washington and Susan B. Anthony.  One of the largest collections of flags is also on display in the Flag Room where over 1,000 flags, many from the Civil War, are on display. “New York State Assembly Home.” 2016. Accessed February 29. http://assembly.state.ny.us/.

Finally, the New York State Museum is located just a stone’s throw from the Capital building. First established in 1836, the museum has moved from various homes until it found a permanent location in the beautiful Empire State Plaza. Some of the more iconic exhibits include Fire Engine Hall, the Cohoes Mastadon, and even a 100 year old Carousel that is still functional today!
“New York State Museum, Albany, New York.” 2016. Accessed February 29. https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/.
The purpose of my tour is to offer a short walk to some of the main museums located in the capital region. While there are more, these are the ones I feel would serve the public the greatest in the shortest amount of time possible. Museums offer such fascinating and creative exhibits, it is a shame more people do not visit and support them. I can recall a class of mine freshman year letting out a collective groan when we were told we would be required to visit a museum and write a short paper on the visit. Not a lot of people want to sit in a classroom and learn about a period in history. Museums offer an experience, one where you interact with the exhibits and if you are not careful, you just might learn something! My targeted audience is the general public that wishes to learn something about Albany. Each one of my walking tour points are areas directly relating to Albany history ranging from the Revolutionary War, through the Civil War, and into modern day. According to Google Maps, this tour would take the average person about 40 minutes to complete.
To further my research I may want to consider the following:
1.) While the larger museums, such as the NYS Museum and the Albany Institute of History and Art, are able to receive large federal funds along with private donations, how can the smaller museums such as the Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence afford to keep the doors open?
2.) How many visitors does each location receive on a yearly basis?
3.) What kind of public outreach programs does each utilize to draw interest?

 

 

Various types of Visualization methods

John Epp

Remember the good ‘ole days of sitting in your third grade classroom and drawing bar graphs and pie chart? The information that we were recording were fun things such as the number of boys versus girls in the class or the various hair colors. Since then, the amount of information we have learned to work with and analyze has expanded exponentially. We literally have a world of information available with a simple Google search. But with all this wild and crazy information that we are so fortunate to look at, a problem arises when there is simply too much. Who wants to sift through pages and pages of surveys to find relationships when you could simply graph them. Maybe a pie chart or a bar graph will be sufficient enough. What if I was to tell you that there are hundreds and thousands of various graphing models available, each specializing in certain fields?

First thing’s first, why do we like to graph information? Research has shown that humans are more keen to identify patterns and relationships visually through color, shape and style, to name a few. This is why graphs play such an important function of data analysis. Unfortunately, not all graphing techniques are ideal for every field of study. While a pie chart and bar graph work great for finding relationships between the population of Albany, a stem-and-leaf plot might not be a good choice. Jeffrey Heer, Michael Bostock, and Vadim Ogievetsky of Stanford University conveniently compiled a list of the more interesting and complex graphing styles. I won’t explore each graph but will instead discuss the few we are all familiar with and a couple of the wild ones.

let us first look at the stock market! We can all recognize that iconic rising and plunging chart that displays the growth and decline of various stocks. This particular chart allows the user to scroll through time and watch how various stocks saw immense growth or loss periods. For example we can see that Apple, in a single month, from June to July in 2006 had a loss factor of over one hundred percent. Protovis is one such program that allows a user to create an interactive, “live”, graph. Unfortunately, it is no longer in development as of 2011, shortly after this article was written.

Out of all the various types of graphs and charts, maps are probably what most of us feel the most comfortable with. If you have ever watched your local six o’clock news you probably have seen Choropleth Maps. These are useful to display the various temperatures across a country using light and dark colors. In this particular map we can look at the obesity rates in the United States. Flow Maps are useful in visualizing a number of important statistics on a map. In this case we are looking at Napoleon’s march on Moscow in 1812. Not only can a large visual be created to overlap the map to depict the route used to travel, but also troop sizes, temperatures, latitudes and longitudes and recurring lesson of never to invade Russia during the winter.

I would like to pose the following questions for us to consider:

1.) Which type of visualization represented in this article, or others not mentioned, do you feel is ideal for historians?

2.) How can we effectively use any of the visualizations mentioned to expand our Walking Tour projects?

3.) As a follow-up question to the previous one: Thinking of our intended audience, how would one particular graph be clearer than another?

My Three Choices

John Epp

My three choices are all over the place. The first two come directly from the Albany Flickr page and the third from our interactive map. Henry Johnson was such an important figure in Albany’s history. Henry Johnson Blvd. is named after him! During World War One he was attached an all black regiment out of Harlem, if I remember correctly. He was on guard duty when roughly a dozen German soldiers came across his post on a probing mission. Though he was outnumbered so greatly he and a fellow soldier fought back the attack despite numerous wounds and running out of ammo. He eventually had to resort to hand-to-hand combat and is credited with stopping a larger potential attack. My uncle was present at the White House ceremony in which he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor this past year so I have a connection to him which is great!

The next two photos I chose simply because they looked interesting or odd. I guess I have a fascination with bridges and seeing the old images of when the Dunn Memorial first opened was cool. As a kid I always hung around our local firehouse so seeing a picture in which a group of firefighters actually lose all water is interesting, and scary.

Sergt. Henry Johnson, of Albany N.Y., the outstanding hero; ...

Water fails the firemen at critical moment

Dashboard 1

Connection to Cleveland Historical: http://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/748#.VsNKG1KnbcA

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2783709?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Ff6%3Dall%26amp%3Bc2%3DAND%26amp%3Bc1%3DAND%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bq3%3D%26amp%3Bsd%3D%26amp%3Bf4%3Dall%26amp%3Bq2%3D%26amp%3Bq5%3D%26amp%3Bisbn%3D%26amp%3Bq4%3D%26amp%3Bc5%3DAND%26amp%3Bf0%3Dall%26amp%3Bq6%3D%26amp%3Bf5%3Dall%26amp%3Bc4%3DAND%26amp%3Bf1%3Dall%26amp%3Bf2%3Dall%26amp%3Bc3%3DAND%26amp%3Bc6%3DAND%26amp%3Bf3%3Dall%26amp%3Bed%3D%26amp%3Bq1%3D%2522arson%2522%26amp%3Bpt%3D%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bla%3D%26amp%3Bq0%3D%2522albany%2Bnew%2Byork%2522&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/capitolfire/fire/index.html

https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/doc/fire1793.html

http://www3.gendisasters.com/category/united-states/new-york