The Hospital and the City

Perspective Stereograph of New York City Hospital from the South Side, 1867

New York Hospital’s relationship to the city around it changed throughout its history, and that change is well reflected in Nye’s journeys around the city during his stay there.

When the New York Hospital opened in 1791, it was far outside (to the North) of the city, in the midst of farmland. The street it was on, Broadway, ended at the building, and there was a large stretch of cow pastures that separated the hospital from the rest of the city.

Over the next decades, the city grew northward, eventually enveloping the New York Hospital.

In almost every entry during Albert’s stay at the hospital, he writes about getting a pass and going out into the city, to explore as well as to find a way to get transportation to reunite with his regiment in Louisiana.



“I got a pass out of the Hospital + went to the Post Office and looked about the City a little did not see any thing worthy of note. Reported myself ready to go to my Reg”

The following interactive map gives you an idea of where he went in the city, as well as a little look into some New York City history.