ABOUT THIS SITE

The Five Points Census Project was first developed in 2003 at the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). Active since 1981, ASHP/CML develops multimedia materials about the history of "ordinary" Americans and offers professional development workshops to teachers in New York City and around the country.

First developed by Fritz Umbach, now Assistant Professor of History at John Jay College, CUNY, this database uses records from Block 160 in the Five Points neighborhood compiled from the New York State Census of 1855. The data on these households was assembled by archaeologists excavating part of the historic Five Points neighborhood in lower Manhattan. The General Services Administration, a federal agency, undertook this excavation when construction on a federal courthouse unearthed artifacts from the Five Points. (The National Historic Preservation Act and other federal legislation requires such archaeological digs when federal construction projects take place on historically significant sites.)

CREDITS

Joshua Harvey and André Pitanga programmed this site. In addition to Professor Umbach, ASHP/CML staff Abigail Lewis, Ellen Noonan, Frank Poje, Leah Potter, and Andrea Ades Vásquez contributed to the development of this site and the lessons included in it.

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Copyright 2003-2006 – Fritz Umbach & the American Social History Project