Research Guides: The Newark Experience: Public Health, History, Sanitation, & Water Supply

Dept. of Health & Community Wellness

Newark Department of Health & Community Wellness: The Surveillance and Prevention Division "monitors disease trends and develops and maintains a public health system in an effort to improve the City of Newark's ability to address the health needs of residents and provide prevention and early intervention activities."

Public Health in New Jersey: History

Guide to Health Care and Social Welfare Manuscript Collections at the New Jersey Historical Society

History of Medicine in New Jersey, and of its Medical Men, From the Settlement of the Province to A.D. 1800: Stephen Wickes and Jonathan Dickinson. Newark, N.J., M.R. Dennis & Co., 1879.

Medicine and Health in New Jersey: A History.: David L. Cowen. Princeton, D. Van Nostrand Co., 1964.; The standard history of medical practice and public health in New Jersey. Available?

A State of Health: New Jersey's Medical Heritage.: Karen Reeds; foreword by David L. Cowen. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press, 2001. Available?

Medicine in Revolutionary New Jersey.: David L. Cowan. New Jersey's Revolutionary Experience 12. Trenton, New Jersey Historical Commission, 1975.

Public Health in Newark: History

Medical Topography of Newark, New Jersey (1861)
"The Medical Topography of Newark, New Jersey " J. Henry Clark. Transactions of the Medical Society of New Jersey, 1861, pp. 45-67.

Newark Public Health Collection (ca. 1850-2005): Collection (1.25 linear ft. [3 boxes]) at the Cummings New Jersey Information Center of the Newark Public Library contains documents and materials relating to hospitals, public health, and individual healthcare practitioners in Newark. More from the Newark Archives Project.

The Medical Men of New Jersey in Essex District, From 1666 to 1866: J. Henry Clark. Newark, N.J., 1867. Available?

Essex County's Doctors Go to War: Michael Nevins. IN Meanderings in New Jersey' Medical History. Bloomington, iUniverse, Inc., 2011, Chapter 7, pp.53-58.

Stuart Galishoff has published the two basic books on the public health history of Newark:

Newark: The Nation's Unhealthiest City, 1832-1895.: Stuart Galishoff. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press, 1988.; Public health policy and reform, including the development of a public water supply and sewerage, in 19th century Newark. Available?

Safeguarding the Public Health: Newark, 1895-1918.: Stuart Galishoff. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1975.; Focuses on the Newark Board of Health and the attempt to comtrol contagious diseases. Available?

Public Health in Newark, 1832-1918 Rutgers-restricted access: Stuart Galishoff. Thesis (Ph.D), New York University, 1969. Available?

Edgar Holden, M.D., of Newark, New Jersey: Provincial Physician on a National Stage.: Sandra W. Moss. Xlibris, 2014. Available?

Reporting the Public Health: Framing Newspapers and Social Responsibilities in Nineteenth Century Newark.: Andrew J. Salvati. Thesis (M.A.), Rutgers University, 2008. Available?

"Integrating Space With Place in Health Research: A Multilevel Spatial Investigation Using Child Mortality in 1880 Newark, New Jersey: Hongwei Xu, John R. Logan, and Susan E. Short. Demography 51(3), June 2014, pp.811-834.; Using child mortality in 1880 Newark, compares the use of integrated multilevel spatial approach for Poisson models of discrete responses with the more typical aspatial multilevel approach. Compares mortality for Irish, German, and "Yankee" children. Rutgers-restricted Access

Health Review of the City of Newark Covering the "Depression Years" 1930 - 1935.: Charles V. Craster. Newark, Division of Health. 1936?

Newark Now, 1970-1975: Positive Health Trends and Developments.: Newark (N.J.). Department of Health and Welfare. Newark, 1976. Available?

"Politics, Police Accountability, and Public Health: Civilian Review in Newark, New Jersey": Alecia McGregor. Journal of Urban Health 93(Supple. 1), April 2016, 141-153.; "On April 30, 2015, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey signed an executive order establishing a Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) to monitor the Newark Police Department (NPD). Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examined how advocates and government actors accomplished this recent policy change in the face of police opposition and after a 50-year history of unsuccessful attempts in Newark." Rutgers-restricted Access

"A Phenomenological Understanding of Residents' Emotional Distress of Living in an Environmental Justice Community": Garbriela Dory et al. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being 12(1), January 2017.; "This study applies a descriptive phenomenological method to explore and describe the emotional experience of residents living in Ironbound, a known EJ community located in Newark, New Jersey."

Fighting Maternal Mortality: Investigating the Influence of Architecture on Women's Health and Wellness: Amanda Nicole Sparks. (M. Arch. Thesis) University of Maryland, 2023.; "This thesis seeks to explore how the use of community based and empathetic design, providing equitable access to nature, and life cycle planning strategies could improve care and redefine how we think about women’s health care in the United States." Chapters 6 and 7 focus on Newark as "the demographics of Newark suggest a population that is highly vulnerable to the problem of Maternal Mortality in the state of New Jersey." Chapter 7 is a site analysis for locating a women's health and wellness center in Newark. Rutgers-restricted Access

Sanitation

Mortality and Sanitary Record of Newark, N.J. from 1859 to 1879.: Edgar Holden. A report presented to the president and directors of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co., January , 1880. Available?

The Sanitary Code Adopted by the Board of Health of the City of Newark, N.J., June, 1888: Newark, N.J., Newark Board of Health. Campbell & Baker, printers and stationers, 1888. 31 pages. Available?

Revised Ordinances of the Board of Health of the City of Newark, Being the Sanitary Code of Said City.: Adopted January 3, 1902.

"Drainage, Disease, Comfort, and Class: A History of Newark's Sewers,": Stuart Galishoff. Societas 6(2), 1976, 121-138. Available?

The History of the Newark Sewer System [Illustrations].: Glenn R. Modica. A Project of the City of Newark, Department of Water and Sewer Utilities, Newark, New Jersey. Cranbury, N.J., Richard Grubb & Associates, Inc., 2001. Available?

Water Supply

A Revised Policy Concerning Newark's Pequannock Watershed: Terrence D. Moore and Mildred E. Barry. Newark, N.J., Rutgers the State University, 1972. Available?

Ground-water Resources of Essex County, New Jersey.: William D. Nichols. Trenton, N.J., Department of Conservation and Economic Development, Division of Water Policy and Supply, 1968. Available?

Preliminary Report on the Geology and Ground-Water Supply of the Newark, New Jersey Area.: Henry Herpers and Henry C. Barksdale. Trenton, N.J., Department of Comservation and Economic Development, Division of Water Policy and Supply, 1951. Available?

"Triump and Failure: The American Response to the Urban Water Supply Problem, 1860-1923,": Stuart Galishoff. IN Pollution and Reform in American Cities 1870-1930. Edited by Martin V. Melosi. Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press, 1980. pp. 35-57.; The development of urban water supplies in Atlanta, Chicago, and Newark. Available?

"The Pollution Problem of the Passaic River,": Daniel Jacobson. Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society 76(3), July 1958, 186-198.; Traces the gradual pollution of Newark's water supply in the 19th century. Available?

"The Passaic Valley Trunk Sewer,": Stuart Galishoff. New Jersey History 88(4), Winter 1970, 197-214. Reprinted in Safeguarding the Public Health: Newark, 1895-1918. Westport, Conn., 1975, pp. 54-67.; The Passaic river, which for many years served both as a water supply and major recreational site for Newark and the surrounding area, by the latter part of the 19th century had been polluted to the point that it "had the characteristics of an open sewer." Traces efforts to mitigate the pollution, culminiating in the opening of the Passaic Valley Trunk Sewer in 1924. Available?

Report to the Newark Aqueduct Board, Upon the Subject of a Supply of Water for the City of Newark.: By George H. Bailey, Engineer. Newark, N.J., Printed at the Daily Advertiser Office, 1861.

An Act Incorporating The Newark Aqueduct Board: "The inadequacy of the supply of water now furnished by the said company to answer the wants of the said city, have rendered it expedient that the duty of supplying the said city with pure and wholesome water for all purposes should be undertaken and carried forward by the city authorities...."

Report of the Newark Aqueduct Board of the City of Newark, Presented December 1, 1874.: Newark, Printed at the Daily Advertiser Office, 1875.

"Essex Water Supply; Drainage and Sewerage of the City of Newark and Their Relation to the Causation of Disease,": L. Southard. Transactions of the Medical Society of New Jersey 1877, 192-200. Available?