Bio:

    My name is Heather Connor and I am a senior at the University of Pittsburgh. I am currently working towards my history degree and will be attending graduate school here at Pitt this summer. I will be enrolled in the MAT program at Pitt working towards my certification in Elementary Education. I have been a member of the University of Pittsburgh softball team for four years competing in the Big East Conference. I was born in Arlington Texas and moved to Reading Pennsylvania in 1994.

Working Notes:

Coroner Files 1960's:

During the 1960’s section of this internship it was interesting to document the multitude of different statistics ranging from types of deaths and occupations. One statistic that I noticed early on in my investigation were the occupations listed on each case file. Out of the countless numbers of case files that I came across the most common occupation for women above the age of twenty was housewife. I found it very interesting that some of the terms they would use to describe a woman that was not involved in the business world, such as, house duties or would simply list ‘home.’ I began to keep track of the women that had professions and in 1966 I only came across six women with professions such as: teacher, waitress, buyer, electric inspector, nurse and restaurant owner. Something that I found very interesting about these six women that decided to break into the workforce three of them committed suicides.             As I moved out of the 1960’s and broke in 1970 I found a large increase of women taking jobs outside the home. In 1970 alone I documented twenty women with jobs such as waitress, teacher, telephone operator, secretary, and store clerk.

            Among the men I have found that one of the most common causes of death for a man over the age of 35 was ASCVD (Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease). Something I found very interesting when reading through many of the case reports were the terms used in describing a person’s creed. Today, a white man is referred to as Caucasian and a black man is referred to as an African American. I do realize that the cases I was looking at were in the midst of the 1960’s but it was still very shocking for me to see in print that a black man was referred to as a Negro.

            The majority of the case reports involve simple diseases and the occasional car accident but there a rare finds such as court transcripts, autopsy reports and even suicide notes. In many of the suicide cases there were usually suicide notes left near the body that would explain why they did it, instructions for finances and to beg for forgiveness. There was one case in particular (1966 08 _ 75) in which I discovered a bloody suicide note inside a clean envelope. The note I found to be very intriguing for the mere fact that he went on for a page and a half about how sorry he was to his three children and at the end of the page he simply wrote to his wife… “Don’t freak out.” Some of the most appealing cases were the files that included photos. There were photos of rooms where individuals had committed suicide, autopsy photos and simply photos of different areas for simple documentation of a site. One of the most interesting case files was that of a housewife that committed suicide ( 1966 11 _ 52). She had overdosed on pills and then shot herself but the most shocking part of it all was in her file there were actual samples of her hair and scalp.

            I found it very intriguing to keep track of the different types of jobs that women held during this time and I have continued documenting this statistic in the case files of the early 1900’s. I have also been keeping track of the different types of death and the most common causes of the death such as: railroad, suicide, infant and mechanical.

Coroner Files 1900's:

There were many differences in the case files in 1900 compared to the 1960’s. One major difference is the structure of the file information and in many cases the lack of general everyday information about the individual person. The majority of women in 1900 were either listed as housewife, domestic or simply did not have anything thing listed. As for the men the most common jobs were “laborer” and “railroad worker.” One aspect of the files that was interesting to document were the different causes of death and the most prominent ones. In the month of February and March 17% of the deaths could be attributed to railroad accidents, 10% were infant fatalities, 3% suicides and 2% of the deaths involved a substance called Paris Green. The 1900 case files was the first appearance of Paris Green as a cause of death.

            Another aspect of these case files were the inmate documents. The inmate files provided normal helpful information such as name, weight, height and the crime the inmate committed. However, there was some surprising information that was provided such as – schooling, religion and oddly enough the drinking habits of the inmate. The most common offenses were breaking an entering and robbery.

            As I went through each case file I notice the majority of the deaths were men. Between the months of February and March of 1900 more than 75% of the deaths could be attributed to men and the deaths attributed to women were usually of elderly women. This statistic even proved true amongst infants during this time when more male infants seemed to parish when compared to female infants. The most common death which many times were worked related that claimed many men’s lives were railroad related.

Coroner Files 1903:

The first thing I noticed about the 1903 files and on was the easier it was to go through the files. For the majority of the files they were already in consecutive order with few files missing or out of place. Also, the files were a somewhat easier to maneuver through in terms of the paper and unfolding them to examine them further. Documenting the causes of death was also easier because on the majority of the case files the cause of death was listed on the front of the file. Instead of hand written files they were beginning to also type most of the information making it less complicated to read handwriting and old ink that had faded.

            Compared to previous years for some reason I noticed an increase in the months of September and October in suicide rates. Of the suicides committed in 1903 during these two months 75% of them were males. A particular case caught my eye in October of a man that committed suicide by using carbolic acid. I began to research carbolic acid and not only discovered its many common medical uses but during World War II the Nazi actually injected this chemical into many of the prisoners in the concentration camps to speed up the execution process. Another interesting fact about this particular suicide was his occupation – a tobie maker. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any information on this particular occupation.

            Another very interesting case took place in September of 1903 involving a family scuffle. A man was hit in the head with a piece of iron (presumably from a large candle holder) in the head causing a fatal head trauma. The strange thing about this case was that it took place during the christening of the man’s son.

History Internship Paper.doc