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Potter’s Field Burial Trench

Unidentified or unclaimed bodies are laid side-by-side for burial in a trench in New York City’s Hart Island potter’s field, euphemistically called the City Cemetery, ca. 1890.  This image serves as a proxy for the trench burials in the Blockley potter’s field.

ca.
1890
Attribution/Credit

Jacob Riis, City Museum of New York