Mark Your Calendar - "Gotham and Its Garbage" At the NY Public Library

When cars park illegally in street-cleaning zones, the Department of Sanitation slaps on bright green notification stickers proclaiming, "a cleaner New York is up to you." Back in the 1890s, New York's cleanliness (there wasn't much of it at the time) rested in the hands of City Hall and public health campaigns. Next Monday, anthropologist Robin Nagle will be lecturing on sanitation reforms at the Public Library in midtown. Details from the library calendar:

"Gotham and Its Garbage: A History of Public Waste, Public Health, and the Department of Sanitation," with Robin Nagle

Monday, June 8th
6:30 PM

Mid-Manhattan Library
455 5th Avenue

It took centuries for New York City to find the will to manage its municipal waste and to keep its streets clean. The effort found success for the first time in the 1890s, when political reform, public health campaigns combined with a moral teaching that tried to foster an upstanding citizenry by creating a well-ordered environment. The anthropologist-in-residence for the New York City Department of Sanitation will focus on the moment in the city's history when these strands came together and will describe how these changes had a lasting impact on the health and well-being of New Yorkers.

-posted by Liana Grey