1898 Matthews Northrup Railroad Map of the Northern United States

This is an 1898 Matthews Northrup railroad map of the northern United States. Depicting from Des Moines, Iowa to New Brunswick and from Lake Superior and Duluth, Minnesota to Charleston, West Virginia, thick red lines trace the routes of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad and its principal connections, all of which are identified. Labeled circles mark stations along these routes. Thin black lines, which are also labeled, illustrate routes of railroads not affiliated with the New York Central.

Wellness Tourism in the 19th and early 20th century

The New York Central operated four lines between New York City and Buffalo, allowing the railroad to run several trains a day through the Hudson Valley. Cities in the late 19th century were not clean places. Diseases, such as tuberculosis (also known as the White Plague), ran rampant, and frequent cholera epidemics stoked fear in New York before the construction of the Croton Aqueduct. With this map, the New York Central hoped to entice those New Yorkers capable of visiting Hudson River sanatoria to do so and to use the New York Central to get there. Sanatoria in the United States, now synonymous with insane asylums, were once posh resorts for those seeking to improve their health. Sanatoria were created as sanctuaries for wealthy tuberculosis patients. At the time, tuberculosis was misunderstood, seen as highly infectious, and believed to be almost always fatal. Typical hospitals, particularly in major cities, would turn away tuberculosis patients, fearing that they would infect all the other patients. Out of this fear arose the idea of creating places far away from society for tuberculosis patients to rest and recover. From here, other what we would call wellness resorts today began to appear and purportedly treated everything from skin conditions to anxiety. Many 'patients' at these resorts were not sick at all but were simply seeking time away from the dirt and grime of 19th-century cities.

The Russian Flu Pandemic of 1889 - 1890

As stated above, diseases could decimate cities before the advent of modern antibiotics. Although, given the current coronavirus pandemic, we have all learned how a virus can change daily life in unexpected ways. A terribly similar event took place between 1889 and 1890, but a yet-unidentified flu virus caused this pandemic. Known as the 'Russian flu' pandemic, about one million people died worldwide, and recurrences happened through early 1895. Since sanatoria were recognized sanctuaries for the ill at the time, many wealthy individuals in New York City would likely have fled to the Hudson River resorts suggested at here in the hope of avoiding contracting the flu and possible death.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by the Matthews-Northrup company and published for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1898. Several different editions of this map were published, all of which are scarce today. The OCLC does not catalog the 1898 edition and catalogs only three examples of the 1893 edition, which are part of the collections at the Library of Congress, Pennsylvania State University, and Marietta College.