# Talk:Hart Island

I strongly disagree with the move of this to the comma form. Hart Island is not a city, or any kind of municipality. It is a geographical feature, and in such cases, I am strongly in favor of the parentheses disambiguation over the comma.  If a comma is to be used, it should be Hart Island, Bronx, as a neighborhood in List of Bronx neighborhoods. Using the comma with the state New York puts it into the false representation as a census-designated place in the United States, which it is not. -- Decumanus 17:41, 2004 Dec 11 (UTC)
Hi!,
I'll leave all the punctuation up to you.
It is an island in Bronx County.
Supercool Dude—Preceding unsigned comment added by Supercool Dude (talk • contribs) 12:38, 27 December 2004 (UTC)

I remember watching a short documentary film about a small island in NYC where prisoners bury stillborn infants. I assume it was Hart Island. But is the island a potter's field in general, or is it specifically for infants? (Sorry for the morbid subject matter) -- Gyrofrog  (talk) 00:52, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

My understanding is that it's still a potter's field, for people of all ages.  --RoySmith 01:06, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

The article says about 100 prisoners are still held on the island, but at least one source says all prisoners were removed to Rikers in 1991. The Corrections website also makes no reference to a current facility on the island. Can anyone confirm this from a source? --Dhartung | Talk 20:05, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

According to [1], In 1966, the jail was closed and the Island was used as a center for the Phoenix House narcotic rehabilitation program. This program was discontinued in 1976 and the Island returned to the Correction Department. However, the Department did not operate the Island as a jail until 1982, when a small prisoner contingent was again housed there. In 1991, the inmates housed on Hart Island were transferred to Rikers Island.  I'll fix up the article.  -- RoySmith (talk) 20:19, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
The prisoners apparently "commute" daily by boat back and forth to Hart Island. http://hartisland.net/wwwebs/Home/History/tabid/64/Default.aspx  Wordreader (talk) 00:43, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

The article talks about a certain "Mrs. Hart" donating the land to New York City. I have a published source which says the land was purchased from the Hunter family, as I have now put forth in the article. Therefore I have edited the article to note that the Mrs. Hart claim is just an urban legend. If there is any published source which supports the Mrs. Hart claim, then I will be happy to remove the urban legend description. Otherwise, the information is suspect. Who seriously trusts local legends? Galanskov 07:57, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Was a prisoner of war camp established on Hart Island in 1863?  Jim.henderson 16:09, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

The statement "Since the first decade of the 21st century, however, there have been fewer than 1,500 burials a year.", is probably wrong.
Please see Up to a tenth of New York City’s coronavirus dead may be buried in a potter’s field. and Lost in the Pandemic: Inside New York City’s Mass Graveyard on Hart Island.
The NewYorkCityCouncil / hart_island_geocoder contains a row about each burial at Hart Island, but does not cover the Covid pandemic as of 2025-10-12. Future updates to it could provide helpful references.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arthur.Goldberg (talk • contribs) 00:06, 13 October 2025 (UTC) 

In the article's cemetery section, there are two different references to how people are buried: "Inmates stack the pine coffins in two rows, three high and 25 across", and "Adults are placed in cardboard cartons costing $54, and are stacked three coffins high and two coffins across" - quite the difference. Which is it? The source is a NY times article that is not reachable.
Ouze 11:41, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Please, could someone check the Cemetery section of the article. I noticed that there are information twice in different places. The dublication doesn't bring any additional information but structure should be checked.--Hannu (talk) 14:31, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
This section is also somewhat disjoint and rambling, with different topics covered in one paragraph and as noted by Hannu above, repetition across multiple paragraphs. A fairly extensive re-write seems to be called for.
ChrisB600 (talk) 20:46, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
I read this article from England (am British resident).  However, I can't help but question the last line about 'famous screenwriter Chris Weller' being buried here as I have not found any wiki articles that could be him (the Chris Wellers are all listed living, none screenwriters).  Googling has turned up a few North American pages with mentions of a Chris Weller in film industry that are as recent as 2010.  I suspect a hoax, unless someone can produce a citation that dates his death.Cloptonson (talk) 18:11, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

User:Texkayaker inserted the following comment in the article:

I was stationed on Hart Island with the Nike Base from 1955 thru 1958. There were never any Silos on Fort Slocum, only the Radar was located there. It was great duty on Hart Island for the military there.
I moved it here because this kind of commentary does not belong in articles, but it appears to indicate a possible error in the article. --Orlady (talk) 23:57, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

I took these links out of the article. epicgenius (talk) 22:22, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Digging Hart Island, New York's 850,000-Corpse Potter's Field by Doc Searls, September 23, 2013
The Nature of Hart Island Essay by Melinda Hunt from Book: Hart Island, Scalo 1998.
Hart Island website by the New York Correction History Society
A Historical Resumé of Potter's Field, 1869–1967 – a 16-page flyer published by the NYC Department of Correction in 1967. (Excerpts in HTML here).
In Essentials, Unity; In Non-Essentials, Liberty; and in All Things Charity: A Historical Account of the Mission of the Diocese of New York of the Protestant Episcopal Church to the Institutions and the Potter's Field on Hart Island, by Wayne Kempton, archivist of the Episcopal Diocese of New York
The Fort Slocum Nike Installation
Brief History of Hart Island Nike Missile Site by the New York Correction History Society
Hart Island: An American Cemetery, documentary film by Melinda Hunt—Preceding unsigned comment added by Epicgenius (talk • contribs) 22:22, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

I don't understand this "original research" rule. Wikipedia has literally hundreds of thousands of references to scientific research papers that are undoubtedly primary sources. In fact, the Wikipedia policy states, "a scientific paper documenting a new experiment conducted by the author is a primary source on the outcome of that experiment." But nonetheless there are plenty of references to such papers. So why is it that on any non-scientific topic, the worst gossip website is acceptable, being a secondary source, but a reference to a novel or other primary source is not?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wombatjpw (talk • contribs) 16:09, 13 April 2020 (UTC) 

You should read WP:NOR, WP:RS, WP:BLP, and WP:MEDRS. Unsubstantiated gossip is not allowed. If you see it, it is an error. Secondary sources are preferred. Primary sources can be used if they they are reliable and don't violate WP policies - see the BLP rules. If you have a concern about a particular issue, you can bring it up in the talk page like you are doing here. MartinezMD (talk) 16:37, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
Regarding this "added possible fact". It's your speculation it is about Hart Island because Hart Island is not mentioned. We don't include the idle speculation of editors on what might be true. —DIYeditor (talk) 17:32, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
Thankfully, there's lots of good original analysis on Wikipedia -- eg in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VI%2C_Part_3#True_Tragedy_as_a_reported_text
This entry says Hart Island was (a) called the Potter's Field in 1900, (b) operated as New York's Potter's Field in 1900 and (c) the boat mentioned in the quote is consistent with the destination being an island. So why not include this, though with the word "may"?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Wombatjpw (talk • contribs) 21:50, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
WP:SYNTH. You have no basis for "may". If it is an obvious conclusion you would just omit "may" but it is not a given so it would be SYNTH. —DIYeditor (talk) 22:01, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

I'd ask editors to consider reframing the COVID-19 section in light of more current and better reporting by the New York Times, New Yorker, etc (early reporting was often in tabloids). Only unclaimed bodies are being buried on Hart island, as usual, regardless of cause of death—it is not a temporary holding ground for COVID-19 burials in specific. Furthermore, while the term "mass grave" is frequently used it may be misleading, since it denotes graves without coffins or a way to retrieve the bodies later. Hart burials include numbered coffins that can be retrieved if families later request it, free of charge. (I have no connection with the NYC government, I am just a writer and researcher interested in Hart.)— Preceding unsigned comment added by Gabriellemeroe (talk • contribs)