Brief Bio:

I am currently a senior at the University of Pittsburgh.  I plan to graduate in the Spring term 2008 with a BA in History.  From there I hope to continue my education in the Library & Information Science program at Pitt or the Archive & Information Science program at the University of British Columbia located in Vancouver. Outside of school I spend the majority of my time captaining and playing for the Pitt Women's Ultimate Frisbee team (yes it's a real sport, and no it doesn't involve dogs), coaching a local high school girls team, and playing & recording music.

Working Notes:

May-1932 

Friday, October 12, 2007 I found a bright pink tablet enclosed in an envelope.  The envelope was labeled such to indicate that the contents was and undetermined substance.  The case file: 193205_106, was of a young girl (approximately 19 months old) who accidentally injested an unknown amount of these pills mistaking them for candies. To properly process the file I placed the pill and the envelope in a new envelope labeled it's contents, then wrote a statment describing the portion of the file that was removed and relocated.  This was an interesting find not only for the artifact, but also for the manner in which the case was described.  The Press Report, Coroner's Inquest, Jury Verdict, and an enclosed news paper clipping all had varrying things to say about the death including negligent parenting, intent to kill the child, various reports of what the substance was and how it was aquired, etc.

1960's Coroner Files:

The work I have done so far with the coroner’s records, primarily from the late 1960s, has proven to be a very educational experience.  While these records deal with the deaths of citizens of the Pittsburgh region, each file provides a concentrated look into the deceased life, painting a specific picture of the time period.  Many of the files are barely distinguishable from one another; “arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease” is a phrase that has become as recognizable as “cheese sandwich”.   The biggest question quickly became which files to pay closer attention to, so as not to get bogged down with countless heart attacks.  The cataloging of the cause of death on the file folder gives a very general idea about what type of death.  For example deaths classified as ‘natural’ are not terribly exciting as most of the decedents are extremely old.  Glancing first at the type of death followed by the decedent’s age and then depending on those two factors the more specific cause of death and coroners report, which details the scene.  These portions of the files give the most information in a concentrated area.

            Some of the more interesting files have had small personal tokens that give some clue as to what the person’s life or death was like.  For example, many of the suicide files include the suicide note left by the decedent. In addition I have come across a butcher’s union carrying card, two bullets, one removed from a suicide victim’s head, the other from a man’s sternum (complete with a fragment of his sternum).  An interesting inclusion to one file was the box from cough syrup, which dated the file with the fact that at this point they were still including a large amount of hydrocodene in the ingredients (something that no longer is included in cough syrup as it has proven to be addictive).  Small tokens such as these make sorting through the files anything but tedious.

            A box from 1970 included a surprising amount of files that included photographs from the scene.  Previous boxes had only included photos from industrial accidents that documented blast furnace explosions and property damage of that nature.  However, this particular box included photographs of a steel worker’s head after being struck by a giant hook used for hoisting steel beams.  Other files included pictures of a man whose cause of death was “asphyxiation by strangulation, plastic bag over the head” in which detailed photos showed bruising around the thorax and neck.  Yet another file included a series of photographs from an autopsy that had several pictures of the man’s intestinal track laid out on the table.  The graphic nature of these photos was a little bit jarring, but also brought the cases back to reality instead of keeping them at a distance where each file simply needed to be processed instead of explored. 

I very nearly missed one of the more interesting photographs.  The case included all of the normal procedural documents along with some newspaper clippings.  The article included was of an engagement announcement of the decedent to a young woman, both individuals finishing their college degrees before marriage.  After reading the article I assumed it was the case file for the young woman, so I read the case report from the coroner to learn what ‘accidental’ tragedy had befallen her.  Oddly enough the deceased was her fiancée and was found in his apartment (which had been locked from the inside), hanging about 10 feet from the front door by a rope.  His body was clad in women’s clothing (complete with go-go boots and mini skirt as indicated by the receiving record of personal effects), and wrapped with gold chain link. The cause of death was ruled accidental asphyxiation due to strangulation.  It is in cases like this that I feel as though I have gained a small piece of insight into the lifestyle of the decedent. 

            In suicide cases some files give such a complete picture of the scene and the decedent’s thoughts that it is a little unsettling.  For example one of the first suicide cases I came across detailed the several hours leading up to the man shooting himself in the head with a revolver.  After locking his son in his bedroom the man went to the basement, scrawled a note apologizing to the son, and informing his wife that he was terribly unhappy, in debt, and unable to see another solution.  The son broke out of his room soon after he heard the gun shot and found his father slumped over on the couch and had apparently used his foot hooked onto a coat hanger to pull the trigger.  Several telephone numbers and small doodles were written on the back of the note as it appeared to be a piece of scratch paper. 

            Another case involved a woman who died of asphyxiation due to a plastic bag being over her head.  The note she left said roughly ‘I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience that cleaning up my body may cause any one.  I just didn’t feel as though I had much to offer any more.  If it’s not too much trouble could you please make sure my remains are donated to the Pitt medical school so that I can be of use to someone. Thank you’.  

            The last box I came across was completely different from the traditional filing system it was an assortment of still born and fetal deaths all stuck into one folder and then a series of maybe 6 folders that were no jurisdiction cases separated by months.  These generally only had the Coroner’s report included and were not separated individually.  I’m not entirely sure why this box was organized (or not organized) in this manner as it seemed that it would be extremely difficult to locate any file in particular.  However, I suspect that there was some sort of reasoning behind grouping these cases in such a way, it was just not described in any way within the files.

1900-1903 Coroner Files:

The files from this time period are much different from those recorded in the 1960s.  The very nature of deaths is completely different, along with the manner in which they are being recorded. The way in which people met their death in this period comments directly on social aspects of the time. For example many deaths are related to transportation and mill or mine accidents.  The number of cases where an individual received injuries from a train substantially outweigh other transportation accidents such as incidents with streetcars or wagons.  In 1900 Allegheny County was an interchange for nine railway companies including the Union Railroad.  With a fairly extensive system of railroads and endless extents of tracks, the opportunity for unfortunate individuals to wander in front of a train in the middle of the night.  Injuries incurred by a run in with trains were so common that it became necessary to begin looking at the occupation of the individual.  This was important because there is a huge difference between a steel worker wandering in front of a train and a brakeman who works for the Union Railroad meeting his end while working.  That being said, an extremely high number of deaths related to trains either took place at night or involved an individual employed by one of the numerous railways.

A large focus of the 1900-1902 case files was on female suicides.  After noting every female suicide case that I came across; I was able to make some generalizations about the type of death.  To begin and state the obvious, the vast majority of women used Carbolic Acid to kill themselves during this period followed by hanging, burning, and other forms of poisoning (such as laudanum).  Carbolic acid was perhaps the most popular method of poison because it was a readily available substance in many households.  Now more commonly called Phenol, the acid was used as an antiseptic and apparently can also be mixed with Vasoline and used for sores or open wounds to help clean and heal. Death by drinking carbolic acid never really seemed to be a pleasant experience.  The victim would not be able to speak after the acid began eating away at the esophageal passage and eventually be overcome as the poison entered the bloodstream.  Notably, during WWII phenol was used in Nazi concentration camps as a quick way to kill individuals by injection.  In some cases, where the decedent was found by someone before they died, a doctor would pump the victim’s stomach in hopes of ridding the body of poison before too much damage was done. 

Generally these victims’ ages varied greatly but were generally of similar socio-economic status. Many were un-wed (in some cases widowed), living either with a family member or in some sort of group living such as a boarding house, and employed as either a housekeeper or a job of a similar nature.  In some files the suicide note was included such as the below:

Dear Arthur,

You know I love you and you [is] the cause of all of this. But I shall never believe that I am lost. Always remember your own little loving Flossie Judah.

In this particular case the decedent was married and she actually told her husband hours before she drank the acid “I’m going home to take a bath, put my good clothes on, and you will never see me again.” But the husband, Arthur, did not think much of it until he received word the next morning that his wife had passed away in the Homeopathic Hospital. 

Poisoning was a popular method for suicide among females of all ages between 1900 and 1902.  Laudanum and opium were also common.  In 1900 opium was available for purchase from druggists as a painkiller (as morphine is a derivative of opium) and with extraordinarily lax regulations on such matters, was easily attainable. In one case a woman named Sarah Ann Ryan bought a ½ ounce of opium from the local druggist, Mr. Goldsmith, and took most of it.  Ms. Ryan’s condition improved after having her stomach pumped and rested for several hours.  Unfortunately her condition rapidly declined in just under a day as her left lung was pneumonic.  She died shortly after the diagnosis and cause of death was stated as “Pneumonia and Opium Poisoning”. 

On a related note, Laudanum poisoning was also a common cause of death within the subcategory of female suicides.   The laudanum available at this time was essentially a deodorized opium tincture used as a painkiller and sleep aid.  Drugs such as laudanum, opium (and all of it’s derivatives), and carbolic acid were readily available and not considered particularly hazardous so purchasing an amount sufficient for self-harm was not out of the ordinary. 

Comparatively speaking the amount of suicides committed with carbolic acid is probably about equal to those committed of a different nature.  Other cases included a number of hangings, a few gunshot wounds, other various poisons, drowning incidences, and in one case a woman who doused herself in kerosene and lit herself on fire.  Male suicides tended to be more violent in nature, with gunshot wounds, stabbings, and hangings being the most common.  There was a greater variation in age, occupation, social status, economic stability, etc… in male suicide cases that I noted than in the female ones.

A general observation about the 1900-1902 files is that at this point in time, a typical death could be attributed to lack of sanitation or knowledge about basic medical issues that we take for granted in the 21st century.  "Heart Failure" is a common COD because there was no other explanation that could be reached and would be widely accepted.  "Spasms", "Heat Prostration", "Inanition", etc... were all common in these files but are slightly vague and do not provide a full enough account of what happened, medically, to the decedent.  As medical practices grow and improve, this will change.

1910-1920:

A brief generalization of the nature of death over a decade can be separated into a few quick ideas.

1. While the period between 1900 and 1906 saw a rapid increase and then from 1906-1911 a plateau in the number of railroad realated deaths. The period between 1910-1920 showed a declinding trend in this type of death. This is not to say that they ceased alltogether, but that they became slightly less common as a few things happened. Namely an increase in population, a shift in means of transportation, and the beginnings of industrial growth in Allegheney county.

 2. The nature of deaths due to illness/infection changed slightly.  With the flu pandemic of 1918 many victims died directly from the flu, or from advanced cases of pneumonia brought on by weakened immune systems due to the flu.  This contributed to a slight decrease in the number of deaths classified as "Heart Failure" because there was a more specific and apparent reason for death that was widely known as a public health threat.