Swinburne Island is the smaller of two artificial islands located in the Lower New York Bay (the other being Hoffman Island) that were used to quarantine immigrants to the U.S. that were found to have been carrying contagious diseases upon arrival at Ellis Island. The island is of artificial origin, and was originally called Dix Island, but was renamed in honor of Dr. John Swinburne (May 30, 1820-April 4, 1889), a noted military surgeon during the American Civil War. Image File history File links Swinburne. ... Image File history File links Swinburne. ... Lower New York Bay is the section of New York Bay outside of the Narrows and open directly to the Atlantic Ocean. ... Aerial photo of Lower New York Bay, showing Hoffman and Swinburne islands. ... Quarantine, a medical term (from Italian: quaranta giorni, forty days) is the act of keeping people or animals separated for a period of time before, for instance, allowing them to enter another country. ... ... Immigration Museum on Ellis Island Ellis Island, located in New York Harbor at the mouth of the Hudson River, was at one time the main immigration port for immigrants entering the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ... May 30 is the 150th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (151st in leap years). ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 1889 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The American Civil War was fought in North America from 1861 until 1865 between the United States of America – forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union – and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ...
The vascular flora of Hoffman and SwinburneIslands was sampled during the 2000 growing season, and in May and June, 2001.
Hoffman Island (4.0 hectares), the larger of the two islands, is located approximately 1 kilometer northwest of SwinburneIsland (1.0 hectare) (Sietz and Miller 1996).
SwinburneIsland, a one hectare island, is the smaller of the two islands.
SwinburneIsland served mostly as a quarantine hospital for those clearly showing signs of airborne infectious diseases such as typhus, yellow fever, or smallpox.
It appears that Hoffman and Swinburneislands formed the first line of defense against airborne diseases, and if you knew through family stories that an ancestor had yellow fever, typhus, smallpox, etc., the Hoffman-Swinburne records would be the most likely place to look.
Administrative control of Hoffman and Swinburneislands passed from the State of New York to the federal government at the beginning of 1924, so that too must be considered.
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