Brief Bio:

 

 I am a Finance and History major at Pitt, currently in my senior year.  I have been interested in history of any kind as long as I can remember, and especially where it concerns Western PA.  This is my second archive related project, the first being a assistant researcher position with the PHLF's Mt. Lebanon Housing Research Project, during which I looked up various deeds to houses and apartment buildings in my assigned area, and recorded the details to be transferred to digital archives.  Additionally, I was responsible for looking up blueprints and taking pictures of said housing.

 

I will be making additions to the wiki both in this section, and in special cases such as plane crashes, industrial accidents, etc. in the appropriate category with my accompanying initials "MWB." Additionally, whenever I work on the internship, I will be keeping a tally of deaths, such as heart-related, brain hemorrhage, suicide, etc. It is my hope that this will aid me in assessing various trends over the years, especially upon completion of the required hours for this internship.

 

As of late February, I will be taking on two specific areas of expertise, Railroad Accidents and Surgeries.  While I have maintained an interest in railroading for as long as I can remember, surgeries have picqued my interest only lately, mostly because I have found it fascinating to look up the various diagnoses on Wikipedia. 

 

Working Notes:

 

18 Jan 08:

 

In the time I have spent researching thusfar, I have encountered several trends.  First and foremost, and as expected, heart disease, heart attacks, and coronary occlusions have comprised the majority of deaths, with "undetermined natural causes" coming in a distant second.  Insofar as suicides have been concerned, it seems the majority of victims have hung themselves. 

 

24 Jan 08:

 

Today, I have run into an unusually high number of deaths due to either car accidents (vehicle on vehicle, or vehicle on pedestrian), or trolley accidents where a pedestrian is killed.  Most often, the cause of death is attributed to a fracture of the skull.  These deaths occurred during late March/early April of 1957. 

 

Another interesting finding is an apparent increase in death certificates that have accompanied case files, usually in about 1 out of every 10 files. 

 

Now that I have been working for a few days, I have also seen a fairly consistent trend in falling deaths, about half of which have appeared to be alcohol-related, the other half seemingly attributable to old age and bone fragility that comes with it.  In rare cases, an autopsy accompanies the file. 

 

28 Jan 08:

 

Above-mentioned trends have continued.  At this point in my research, I have discovered several interesting cases, such as plane crashes which are mentioned in that section of the wiki.  I've also encountered several cases of homicides and drug-related deaths in the Hill District, which seems to be indicative of rising racial tensions which would peak in the following two decades.  Both homicides have been stabbings, and the drug-related deaths have both seemed to involve heroin use, or as it was described in one case file, "mainlining."

 

Every so often, I will find abortion deaths, such as the case of one infant who was found premature in a sewer.  Also, just as prevalent, I will run into cases of infant death, most likely due to SIDS. 

 

I have also found several diagnoses of cancer as the cause of death.  With the increase in sophistication of diagnosing techniques, as well as the gradual lengthening of the human lifespan due to higher standards of living, I expect this trend to continue.  Additionally, I expect the number of deaths attributed to "undetermined natural causes" to decrease overall. 

 

31 Jan 08:

 

It appears that I have significantly discounted an earlier-mentioned trend in causes of death, second only to coronary ailments.  It seems obvious now, but I didn't realize initially how many deaths have been caused by falling.  Many of these cases, not surprisingly, involved the elderly.  Typically they were bedridden when the incident occurred, and were in the process of walking to the bathroom, or elsewhere in the house, when they either fell out of bed, onto the floor, or down a flight of stairs.  Most often, and again not surprisingly, this resulted in multiple fractures, mainly to the skull, legs, and/or spine, and either a heart attack or stroke of some variety. 

 

In one of the most interesting deaths that I have encountered thusfar, a 4-year Allentown boy was playing with his brothers and sisters while their mother went to a corner grocery store.  The boy began swinging on the door of an old refrigerator, and due to the unit behind a top-heavy old-fashioned type with the motor mounted on top of it, it fell over and crushed the boy, killing him instantly.  He was pronounced dead on arrival at South Side Hospital.  195902_28.

 

7 Feb 08:

 

Both yesterday (Wednesday) and today, I encountered housefires that each claimed the lives of three young children.  Yesterday's is even more remarkable, though tragically so, in that it also contained some pretty heavy indications of racism in how the mother of the victims was treated.  Wednesday's case is described in more detail in the "Fires" section of this Wiki, and the case number for today's is 195911_186-188.

 

I have also encountered several causes of death which heretofore I had not seen in the files.  The first was a child who died of hydrocephalus, which is a buildup, gradual or otherwise of fluid in the cranial cavity.  Tragically, the child who was afflicted with this disorder died less than a year before the process of shunting (i.e. draining fluid from the head) was put into practice; this process may have been able to save his life.  While not particularly pertinent to the subject at hand, I found the Wikipedia article on this disorder quite interesting. 

 

The other cause of death which I had not encountered, at least that I can remember, is throat cancer.  It is my suspicion that with the increased usage of autopsies on the deceased who would otherwise be pronounced dead of undetermined/natural causes, this affliction will become more commonly cited as a cause of death than before.  It was not noted whether the man was a smoker or not, but given that the man was a McKeesport resident, it is a safe bet that either smoking or the environment of the city was the catalyst behind his carcinoma (195911_194). 

 

In addition, I encountered an instance of an infant death due to repeated severe beatings at the hands of its mother's fiancee.  Initially, the defendant furnished conflicting stories to authorities and the child's mother, but after taking a lie detector test confessed to both holding the child down with his fist and striking the child so hard that he required stitches, on separate occasions.  Even more disturbing, he confessed to taking "great delight" in administering blows to the child.  In an interesting twist however, a newspaper clipping accompanying the file states that the accused repudiated this earlier confession, stating that he was under great pressure, and that the authorities involved in giving him the lie detector test gave him answers and he simply repeated them.  It is also interesting to note that he voluntairly took the lie detector test. (195911_180).

 

While the house fires were certainly tragic in the own right, in particular the former of the two, the case file mentioned immediately above is far more so.  My exposure to these and other cases, involving infant abuse, infant poisoning (such as 195911_197, where an infant swallowed forty aspirin tablets), or even simple cases of SIDS will, I should think, stick with me when and if I ultimately get married and have children.  In addition, it has, like many other situations I have encountered in my late-teen and early adult life, made me significantly more appreciative of what my parents have gone through and had to worry about over the course of my upbringing. 

 

13 Feb 08

 

I made a new observation today, that deaths listed as "undetermined natural causes" or something to that effect aren't always undetermined because of an inability to do so.  It appears that oftentimes, the deceased was prone to heart/stroke problems prior to their death, and in some cases, it is recorded by either police or family members that such an occurrence was the true culprit in the victim's death.  There is one instance where, according to a family member, an older woman suffered a heart attack, fell, and hit her head on a radiator causing cerebral damage.  While the primary cause of death must have been hard at the very least to pinpoint, there are other cases where it seems pretty obvious that heart or stroke problems were in fact to blame.  Thus, from this point on I will be more thorough in my examination of these files, and whenever possible try to attribute the death to a cause other than undetermined. 

 

The only other interesting cirumstance which I have encountered today, and for that matter this week is the sudden lack of newspaper clippings accompanying case files.  For instance, a car wreck that killed three Moon Township males (196006_218-220) did not include any clippings for photographs whatsoever.  The same goes for four other fatal car wrecks which I encountered early on in July of that year.  Why this is the case I do not know, but it would be interesting to see if the trend continues.  My current hypothesis is that the coroner suddenly made a decision to discontinue including these clippings in the case file, or there was a change in who occupied that position and the successor decided to put a stop to that particular practice.  Granted, the clippings aren't really an essential element of the case file, especially since detailed accident reports have been included with all of these files, all of the accidents in July include coroner inquest files as well. 

 

15 Feb 08

 

Regarding the above-mentioned lack of newspaper clippings that I have noticed, it appears that almost all case files do not have clippings anymore.  The box that I have been working on today and Wednesday, covering June and July of 1960, has but one case file that includes them.  This is a slight disappointment, since newspaper articles have provided almost all of the pictures regarding each incident at this point in time, and it makes the file seem like more than just names and testimonies on forms.  Now all that is generally available are affadavits from witnesses, death certificates, and in certain rare instances, inquests.  Hopefully it will not be too long until the practice of taking Polaroids of each incident initiates. 

 

I also came across a diagnosis of sickle-cell anemia (196007_122).  The victim in question was a young African-American boy, about 4 years old at time of death.  Considering the microscopic nature of the disorder, I wondered if this was one of the first instances of it being attributable as a cause of death.  This was far from the case however; diagnoses have made as far back as the early 1800s, and in line with the ethnicity of the victim, primarily affected persons of African descent and was a known culprit in infant deaths.  At the risk of sounding like an after-school special, I am also beginning to realize one of the ancillary benefits to this internship, for me at least: I am by no means a medical expert, but every time I run across a death of this nature, I have gotten into the habit of checking it out on Wikipedia and of course furthering my knowledge in the process.

 

Today myself and a couple of other interns discussed ways that we could further enhance the Wiki with Kate.  Over the next few weeks, I will be developing and implementing a standard format for all Wiki entries, so that everything looks a little more professional.  Additionally, I have begun contacting the members of several Yahoo! Groups message boards that I am on that pertain to railroads.  As far back as I can remember, I have maintained an interest in railroading, and because of that I will be further researching railroad-related fatalities that I come across both in the files and here on the Wiki.  I have already heard back from the administrator of the Baltimore and Ohio RR group, suggesting some sources where I might find more information on fatal accidents.  I will also be posting on the Pennsylvania RR, Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR, Union RR, and Steel message boards in hopes of unearthing similar sources. 

 

18 Feb 08

 

After running across two surgery deaths almost right next to each other, and not really finding a particular category where they might be relevant to, I created a new category specifically for individuals who died either in surgery or while recovering from one.  I also contemplated creating categories for deaths with falling as their primary cause, as well as carbon monoxide poisoning deaths, however I have decided to hold off on these for the moment. 

 

Today I began working on January of 1961, and I have noticed that in contrast with past boxes, this one seems to group deaths of a similar type together.  For example, no single death attributable to falling was located, but rather several were encountered, one after the other.  As such, they were also numbered consecutively.  This is in stark contrast to last week, where order of this caliber was nonexistent, and in fact the box itself was extremely disorganized (the main one that I worked on was June and July of 1960).  This may be due in part to the inclusion of inquests in 1960, whereas in 1961 there does not appear to be any included at all. 

 

I have also run into a single newspaper clipping thusfar, and oddly enough for a man who collapsed from a heart attack.  I have never before come across a clipping included with such a common type of death.

 

21 Feb 08

 

It appears that my previous observations regarding the lack of newspaper clippings were not signs of a new trend; I have now found several in both January and February, so it appears that the practice is still an active one at this point.  I have also started examining closer the case files where the victim died of "undetermined natural causes."  It appears that in several of these deaths, the victim complained of chest pains shortly before death, and later on either collapsed suddenly or died in bed, an ending common to almost all deaths of this type.  There are a number of possible explanations for this, the most obvious of which would be that since no foul play was suspected, further investigating the cause of death might have been ruled a waste of time, especially if the victim's next of kin did not want an autopsy of any kind.  Autopsies are expensive and time-consuming procedures, so this explanation is probably the most valid one. 

 

I also stated awhile back that I thought the number of files with this type of diagnosis would slowly go down, however that does not appear to be the case.  I made this hypothesis with the slowly increasing human lifespan and the advent of more advanced diagnoses, however it is highly likely that many of these people died of a heart ailment of some variety, so that observation appears to be flawed to a high degree.  Nevertheless, I will continue keeping close track of these types of deaths, and closer to the end of my tenure here make a more conclusive and valid observations. 

 

27 Feb 08

 

The prediction that I made earlier in this section regarding a future upward trend of black-on-black violence in the 1960s might be starting to come true.  Twice already today I have found instances of murders involving African-American men shooting each other, both with small-caliber weapons (196111_100, 196111_110).

 

3 Mar 08

 

Despite having to go through case files in an extremely expeditious manner, I made a few interesting observations today.  It seems as though more of the files are being typed lately, and that falling deaths were quite prevalent today.  While part of this can by explained by the fact that roughly half of my case files occurred in January and February (1963), the other half were from May and June.  I also came across two deaths in particular that caught my eye; the first was an elderly woman that died from a fall, but listed in the secondary causes was gangrene of the bowels from an obstruction (196301_204); the second was an apparent murder-suicide, although not in the sense that one might expect it to be.  According to affadavits, the two persons involved were a couple in their 50s, both of whom had been experiencing poor health.  They were found in bed, shortly after the husband shot the wife and then took his own life, with a .38 caliber revolver.  There were no signs of a struggle (196302_28-29). 

 

Also, in keeping with the above post, I found a couple more cases of black-on-black violence, however in my haste I did not record the case file numbers. 

 

Finally, I found a case of an accidental Carbon Monoxide poisoning case where a couple died in their vehicle due to a corroded tailpipe leaking exhaust fumes into the car interior.  Interestingly enough, the case file contained three samples that were taken from the front seat, rear seat, and trunk of the car (196302.63-64).

 

6 Mar 08

 

Today I discovered a set of six case files from a huge auto collision on the Parkway East, which is discussed in more detail in the appropriate section of this Wiki (196307_189-194).  As seems to be the case in many instances of fatal alcohol-related crashes over the years, the driver of the vehicle survived, hopefully to live under the burden of his irresponsibility for quite some time. While I have always been one to avoid getting behind the wheel after having a few, this case along with other such incidents that I have encountered thus far in my internship has really driven home the reason why driving under the influence is so looked down upon in society today.   

 

I also found another tragic auto collision later on in the month of July, this one in the South Hills on Rte. 19.  A father and his five children were returning from a birthday party when they were involved in an accident with two other vehicles.  The father, who was ironically a road safety advocate, two of his children, and the driver of one of the other vehicles was killed.  The other three children in the car were injured, and a grandmother and her nephew in the third care were also injured (196307_213-216).  According to newspaper clippings, this had been the third multi-victim, multi-vehicle accident of the month, with the others being the above-mentioned Parkway East crashes, as well as one back during the Fourth of July. 

 

I never cease to be amazed and sickened at some of the painful ways in which people choose to commit suicide; while all methods are of course deeply tragic for both the victim and their friends and family, the sheer manner in which some people choose to take their lives can boggle the mind.  Case in point, a man in his 30s who took his own life by consuming Draino.  I honestly cannot even comprehend the incredible pain that this man must have gone through before he expired (196307_196).

 

Finally, in the spirit of the well-known Darwin Awards, a man was trying to load a miniature cannon inside his car with black powder, when the gun went off prematurely, blowing off his hand and causing a gaping wound in his left side, and ultimately leading to his death due to shock.  Even more sickening is that his infant was in the car at this time as well, and got splattered by his blood and flesh (196307_199).

 

7 Mar 08

 

Among the unusual deaths that I encountered today, one in particular stood out: case file 196308_186, that of a Glassport man who was killed when the hotel he was staying in collapsed due to a "tornadic storm."  Since tornadoes in this area are so rare, I conducted some casual research and found out that this same storm was the death knell for the financially-ailing the United States Glass Company which had essentially been the reason behind Glassport's founding.  The storm destroyed most of the plant, and ultimately caused the glass ovens to fail, allowing the molten glass to cool and forming a solid 250-pound block. 

 

13 Mar 08

 

Today I have made two ethnicity-related observations. the first of these is concerning the pattern of entries under the heading "Nationality" on the press reports.  It appears as though more and more victims are simply listed as "American," rather than their specific nationality as in the past.  I would have to guess that this is due mainly to the gradual dying off of first-generation immigrants whose ethnicities are the easiest to identify.  If I remember correctly, the last big wave of immigrants to the Pittsburgh area was during the years prior to WWI, so this would seem to make sense.  Occasionally, as in today's case, I have found a listing of "Jewish" under this heading, but that has been the lone exception.  Also ethnicity-related are the entries under the "Color" heading; in case file 196412_122, I have found an indication that the typist was quite lazy, as on this file a simple "ed" was typed next to the "Color" heading.  The file was obviously for a person of African descent, in this case a Library man who was shot twice by another individual, race unknown.  

 

Additionally it is worth mentioning that aside from one case so far today, I have not seen a denotation of "XX" on any case file in at least a week.  It seems that these are also becoming less prevalent. 

 

Today I have encountered my first, and only so far, case that truly seems to have a racist undertone (196509_140).  It is discussed in detail in the appropriate section, and I only bring it up here because if time permits, I might try and dig up some microfiche on the incident at the Carnegie Library in Oakland, where the Post-Gazette's archives are located. 

 

I have also encountered a great deal of infant deaths today, including three infant girls (all described in more detail in Fetal and Infant Deaths) who died in December of 1964 of heart-related causes while in the hospital.  Additionally, just as I was finishing up today I ran across a case of a baby who drank Mr. Clean and subsequently died of Gastroenteritis.  This case is particularly noteworthy in that there are pages upon pages of reports from medical examiners as well as Proctor and Gamble Co. (the makers of Mr. Clean), and substantial lab reports.  One could learn a great deal about infant deaths by reading this case alone, its contents to which I had to dedicate an entire folder (196509_151). 

 

19 Mar 08

 

Today marks my first true exposure to the new format of case files, and my experience thusfar has been rather frustrating.  The biggest source of this frustration stems from the sheer number of missing files that I have encountered thus far (non-judicial case files for July 1970), due to the new categorization of files into judicial and non-judicial cases, with the former being separated for further investigation.  I also have to admit a certain amount of frustration due to picking up a non-judicial box, since the overwhelming majority of these cases consist of heart-related deaths, instead of the more unique deaths which have in the past made this project so interesting. 

 

On another note, I found my first cases of prostate cancer diagnoses, which is rather surprising, given how common of a cancer it is in men.  This seems to be more evidence of an increase in the lifespan of the average Allegheny County resident, since in the past it would have been much less common for one to live long enough to experience it.  This also might be evidence of an increase in the sophistication of diagnosing techniques (197007_132, 169). 

 

In another interesting cancer case, a Carnegie woman's cause of death was listed as "Metastatis Cancer," or basically cancer that has spread throughout the body, usually via the circulatory system (197007_218).  Metastasis is one of the chief classifications of cancer in terms of whether it is benign or malignant. 

 

Finally, I have decided to stop marking down different causes of death and the numbers associated with them, due to the relatively small scope of the files that I am currently covering.

 

20 Mar 08

 

I would like to clarify the scope of the cases that I have been working on since yesterday; they are as follows:

 

-Heart-related deaths, including but not limited to coronory thromboses, occlusions, arteriosclerotic heart disease, etc;

-Stroke-related deaths such as cerebral hemmorrhages or occlusions;

-All or most cancer deaths

-Premature infant deaths (miscarriages, breech babies, etc. but NOT abortions)

-Diabetes

-Any death perceived as natural and thus not suspicious

 

24 Mar 08

 

Today I began working in earnest on the "normal" post-1970 case files.  It is worth mentioning that I have encountered no railroad-related deaths in the past two weeks, and after asking a few of my peers, they have encountered either little or none as well.  This is most likely attributable to the increased use of crossing signals and gates, as well as the increased usage of highways which oftentimes utilize underpasses or overpasses when intersecting a railroad, as opposed to at-grade crossings.  Delving into my admittedly amateur knowledge of this area of railroading, I know that at this point safety was becoming more of a concern for both the railroads and motorists/pedestrians alike, so I would not be surprised to find statistics which prove this theory. 

 

Currently, the best source that I have found is the Federal Railroad Administration's website, which allows queries of ten-year accident statistics dating back to 1976.  While this isn't quite in the realm of the case files that I have been examing, the trends from that year to the present day have been decidedly on the decreasing side, so once again I would wager that the period I have been working on, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, will show similar results. 

 

26 Mar 08

 

I have begun to notice that as far as surgical deaths go, the most common types seem to be heart-related.  This realization came as no surprise since it correlates well with the fact that the majority of deaths overrall have a coronary occurrence as a root cause.  Even more specifically, abdominal aortic aneurysms seem to the be the most common.  These mainly occur after a surgery involving the same either results in a ruptured aneurysm, or if the surgery itself is a result of a rupture.  In either case, this typically means that the surgery came too late to help the deceased.  According to MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, increasingly sophisticated techniques have been used to detect and diagnose this problem, which is a fairly common occurrence.  It would also seem fairly likely that those victims who didn't die of heart attacks but whose deaths were attributable to coronary disorders might have had a similar problem that went totally undetected until it was too late. 

 

When going through files for late June and early July 1971 (Box 730), I have noticed that there were several folders whose contents were pulled, save for a single slip of paper which was usually a receipt to the coroner for payment.  Since it was just one file in all cases, and the file did not have a docket number on it, I simply left it in the folder and put the folder itself in a new folder, similar to what I am doing with folders that have had all their contents pulled. 

 

27 Mar 08

 

Today I came across two consecutively-filed deaths in January of 1972 that involved elderly individuals who died of "exposure to cold" as well as arteriosclerotic heart disease.  In the first situation, the deceased (a 70-year old McKees Rocks man) was found in his house in bed, and the individual who found him stated that there was no heat on.  In the second, a 90-year old Pitcairn woman was found  face up in her backyard.  Given the extremely cold temperatures that were likely occurring, and in the first case, the probability that the victim's residence was an older, poorly-insulated house, I can see why exposure to cold was cited as a cause of death.  The second case is much more unusual, and due to the fairly spartan affadavit and coroner's report, leaves a lot of questions to be answered.  What was the woman doing?  Did she have a coat, hat, etc. on?  There was no chemical presence on the toxicology report, and it should be noted that the woman was a widow.  197201_137, 197201_138.

 

One of the last cases that I found today was of a man who died a few weeks after suffering fractured ribs and shock in a car accident, after another driver abruptly crossed the center line of California Ave. and hit him head-on.  What makes this case an interesting one is that there is an inquest included with the files which records a trial held against the man who him the deceased, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter due to the victim dying of arteriosclerotic heart disease.  Ultimately, after consulting several doctors and the policemen who were involved in the accident's investigation, the charges were dismissed as doctors stated that the man had passed away as a result of heart problems not associated with the accident.  197201_185.

 

3 Apr 08

 

A couple weeks ago in the Infant Deaths section, I noted that letters from the coroner, Dr. Cyril Wecht to the parents of infants who had died due to SIDS were being included in those files.  Between last Monday (31 March) and today, I have found roughly a dozen or more instances of SIDS, with each accompanied by such letters.  As far as this practice is concerned, it is a shame that we are almost at the end of the later case files, since it would have been interesting to see if this practice continued over the entire course of Dr. Wecht's term as coroner.

 

In the case files of victims who had died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, I have noticed a sharp increase in the amount of case files with the bullet, slug, or pellets/wadding used included in the file.  While this has been interesting to me in and of itself (last week was the first week that I had ever found those items included in files), it is also interesting to note that many times a small part of the victim will be present in the deformed bullet.  The most notable example of this is the first bullet that I found, a deformed .22 caliber bullet with a small skull fragment trapped in part of it.  Today, I found a .32 cal. pistol bullet with a couple of hairs in it.  These findings, as well as coroner's reports that I have read about all such cases has led me to realize that .22 caliber rounds have probably been the most commonly used in suicides.  While I have not kept track of this to be totally certain, the premise makes sense since .22 caliber rifles are rather inexpensive, especially the .22 cal. target pistols that I have seen used more than a few times.  Shotguns are also a fairly common weapon used in such deaths, as they too are relatively cheap, especially the single-shot models.  

 

7 Apr 08

 

Today is the first day that I have been working on the 1800s coroner files.  Due to a combination of their fragile nature and near-illegible handwriting, they have been taking me much longer to get through than any of the files that I have previously worked on.  I have also noticed several distinct characteristics of these files as opposed to the ones that I have been working on earlier.  First of all, there appears to be specially marked forms for different deaths, such as railroad, hospital, etc.  A typical case file consists of one of these forms, as well as several pages of lined paper on which witness and family testimonials are written.  These also include a certifying mark of some kind, usually a stamp and the coroner's signature.  Finally, as my peers have also noticed, where coronary-related issues used to dominate as causes of death, railroad accidents occupy that title during this time period.  Typically, there have been two categories of railroad accidents: those where the victim was trespassing and either trying to jump on a train or walking along the tracks; or those where the victim was a railroad employee and was performing maintenance or inspections of some type when they were struck.  Either way, these deaths resulted in a least a skull fracture, and separation of the body into at least two parts quite often. 

 

In addition to the railroad accidents, I have found a large number of accidental shootings.  Typically these are cases where children find their parents' or relatives' weapons and, in the course of playing with them, discharge the weapon with fatal results. 

 

Finally, there are a few deaths which would have been highly unlikely in more recent times, such as where victims are either run over by wagons or kicked by horses.  An example of the latter cause of death is found in file 189407_426.

 

9 Apr 08

 

Though I have only been working on the 1890s coroner files for two days now, I am noticing that there are some very generic-sounding names in the a few of the files.  After some thinking, this made me remember reading a long time ago about how immigrants would change their first and last names to make them more "American-sounding", with the intent of avoiding the ever-present ethnic bias that was virtually a cultural norm during this time period.  The best example that I have found of this is the last name of two young girls that perished in a house fire, whose last names were "Steel." 

 

Also today, I encountered three separate cases of elderly women dying after their clothes caught on fire, whether due to standing too close to a fireplace, or knocking over a lit lamp.  I would have to assume they were wearing a nightgown or some other type of loose clothing at the time.

 

10 Apr 08

 

Building on my previous statement regarding women dying from burns received due to their clothes catching fire, today I have found two cases of young girls (both 5 years old) that died in the same manner.  As in previous cases, they were both standing too near their houses' fireplace grates when the accident happened.  In the case of the latter, the girl's clothes caught fire while lighting a pipe.  At first this surprised me to think of a girl that young smoking a pipe, but then I realized that she was most likely lighting the pipe for her father.  189606_466, 189606_468.

 

I have also noticed that in this era, case files involving women are remarkably rare.  This is most likely due to the vast majority of women at this time being confined to the home, where aside from slippery floors and fireplace grates, there were no real hazards.  This in turn meant that most women of the time died natural deaths, for which there were obviously no case files made.

 

Final Notes

 

My time working on the Coroner Case File Project was an enlightening and enjoyable one.  In particular, I learned a lot about Pittsburgh history, and even more so in the case of the categories which I had responsibility for, railroad accidents and surgical deaths.  Being a longtime amateur historian of industry and railroads, especially those in Western PA, I was already somewhat familiar with the hazards of Pittsburgh's industry and railroads.  From participating in this archive work however, I was able to glimpse a more personal aspect of these hazards and the tragic consequences that can ensue.  In fact, the same can be said for every file that I looked through.  This was not only due to seeing the files complete with the names of the victims, their personal information, etc., but also from the affadavits and testimonies written by their next of kin, witnessess, and officers at the scene of the accident.  In the case of next of kin, I found myself thinking about how hard it must have been to write those documents only days or even hours after the death of their loved one.  The personal aspect of these files hit home even more when the files were accompanied by newspaper clippings, evidence, and photos.  Some of the newspaper articles in particular were quite horrific, and the same can be said for the photos, both those in the newspaper and those taken by officers at the scene.  Demolished, burned out cars, aircraft wreckage, destroyed homes, and even a man jumping off the Fort Pitt Bridge all made a permanent mark on my memory, as did some of the material evidence, such as slugs with pieces of bone or hair in them, or drugs in tablet form. 

 

The project also had several ancillary benefits for me, mostly pertaining to railroad accidents and surgical deaths, which were again the areas in which I had responsibility for documenting on a deeper basis than normal.  In the case of railroad accidents, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of why railroads were such a source of so many of Pittsburgh's deaths, particularly in the late 1800s.  These were due mainly to either (a) persons employed by the railroad who died, usually brakemen while riding the tops of cars or coupling/uncoupling cars, or (b) trespassers, most likely drunk in many occasions, who were walking on the right-of-way and did not hear the train coming.  Insofar as surgical deaths were concerned, I learned a great deal about many surgical procedures, particularly toward the latter part of the time frame that we covered.  For the most part, I found this information from Wikipedia, as well as a few specifically medical-related sites. 

 

In conclusion, my work with the Coroner Case File project has exposed me for the first time to a more personal and human aspect of Western Pennsylvania history, and has significantly augmented my previously-limited archiving experience.  While the coroner files, because of their obvious nature, constitute a somewhat unpleasant aspect of my history education, it has nevertheless been one of the most memorable.