It takes a mere 10 minutes by boat to navigate to New York City's Hart Island, one of the United States' largest paupers' cemetery.
But it took Rosalee Grable more than a year to reach the gravesite where her mother was buried on the uninhabited strip of land off the city's Bronx borough.
For the first time, families head to the nation's largest mass grave to visit where their loved ones are buried.
In one victory in a battle for public access to the city's potter's field. Beginning Sunday, relatives of people buried in the municipal cemetery on Hart Island will have easier access to the graves of loved ones.
In a fitting show of compassion for the poorest of the poor, the New York Civil Liberties Union has won the right for family members of those buried on Hart Island to visit the unmarked gravesites of loved ones.
For 24 years, Peekskill artist Melinda Hunt has spent her life documenting, charting and helping families gain access to Hart Island, where New York City has buried its anonymous and indigent dead since just after the Civil War.
"The grieving public has been kept for far too long from getting the closure they need after a loved one is buried on Hart Island. I have pushed for expanded visitation on Hart Island because burial sites on public grounds should be open to all individuals who need to mourn. Anyone who has ever lost a loved one is aware of the undeniable importance of being able to visit their burial site."
In a major policy shift governing the potter's field run by New York City for the burial of unclaimed bodies, the city has settled a lawsuit and will allow relatives to visit grave sites on Hart Island, off City Island in the Bronx.
THE BRONX — The city has agreed to allow families whose loved ones are buried on Hart Island, the city's potters field, to visit the deceased once a month, according to a settlement reached on Wednesday between the NYCLU and the city.
Families whose loved ones lie in a New York City potter's field for unclaimed bodies or those unable to afford burials will be able to visit the gravesites for the first time under a settlement announced on Wednesday.
Family members of people buried at the city's potter's field of Hart Island will be allowed to visit their graves under a landmark settlement of a class-action lawsuit announced on Wednesday.
More than a million bodies are believed to be buried on Hart Island, the city’s indigent burial ground for over a century. Now one woman is trying to link families with their loved ones with ‘a sort of Facebook for the dead’
In New York and other cities, activists are pushing back against the persistence of inequality in death, as in life.
The Department of Corrections runs it. The Parks Department doesn’t want it. But citizens want to visit their dead.
On the third Thursday of every month at 9 AM, you can visit Hart Island, a massive potter's field in New York City, but only if you've made a reservation in advance.
One of our deepest unvoiced fears in life can probably be summed up in one word: anonymity.
While the subject matter may be a little shocking, and the tone is something akin to True Detective, The Hart Island Project website is pretty incredible in a design sense.
The video intro – don’t skip it – it sets the tone that is continued through out the site. And while the patented Traveling Cloud Museum over the map of the island is extremely cool, you may want to head over to The History, About, and Mission pages in the off-screen menu on the right to get a sense of why, and background for the rest of the site. The design (by Studio Airport – @Studio_AIRPORT – out of The Netherlands) is great, but the story is even more interesting.
La artista canadiense Melinda Hunt lleva desde 1991 trabajando para hacer visible la historia de Hart Island, uno de los mayores cementerios olvidados del mundo y la mayor acumulación de fosas comunes de Estados Unidos. Ahora quiere que cualquiera lo visite de forma virtual gracias a su proyecto Hartisland.net.
In January, members of the City Council, which is considering legislation that would transfer the island's oversight to the Parks Department, visited on a guided tour.
Councilman Mark Levine, the parks committee chair, said he came away from the experience “feeling that it’s a place that more New Yorkers should be able to visit.”
Community Board 10 is supporting an effort calling for the transfer Hart Island, home to the city’s Potter’s Field, to the Parks Department.
New York's public cemetery has been off-limits to the public for decades. But with a push to transfer control of the island-bound burial ground to the Parks Department, that could all change.
