Privacy Timeline

Harvard University

Privacy Timeline: Consent

Gov 1430

1850

GOSSIP

New York Times. Nov 19, 1855.

What Has Been Most Talked About During the Week. FENIMORE COOPER says in the introductory note to one of his late novels, that this country is not a Republic, but a Gossiprick, meaning, as he quite needlessly goes on to explain, that it is the light gossip of the day, and not the grave deliberations of our Senators and popular Representatives, that influences our Legislation, and even determines, in many cases, the decisions of our Judges. [PDF, Timeline]

Article 4 -- No Title

New York Times. Oct 17, 1859.

THE LATE WEDDING--THE PRESS AND PRIVACY.--The Philadelphia Press is shocked at tile conduct of the New-York newspapers in giving a detailed account of a private marriage. Such a violation of propriety, it is quite confident, could never have been perpetrated in Philadelphia. [PDF, Timeline]

1880

PARISIAN CLUBS.

New York Times. Aug 29, 1886

PARIS, Aug. 18.--The attractions of outdoor life in Paris have long been unfavorable to the growth and prosperity of clubs. By outdoor life is meant life in the restaurants and especially in the cafes, not to mention outdoor life in the literal sense of the word, as typified by the crowded ... [PDF, Timeline]

THE SECRETIVE SENATORS

New York Times. Dec 16, 1886

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15.--By a vote of 33 to 21 the Senate decided to-day that it would hold fast to the system of secret consideration of executive nominations, by which a premium is put upon demoralizing and disgraceful bargains and deals for the distribution of patronage for the benefit of Senators, without regard to the ... [PDF, Timeline]

ITS WINE CELLAR FAMOUS

New York Times. Feb 14, 1886

There is always more or less of mystery, and it may be added dignity, about club life and clubhouses because of the fundamental privacy and exclusiveness. [PDF, Timeline]

THE PRINCE AND HIS MOTHER.

New York Times. Jan 17, 1886

If it be true, as stated by a contemporary, that the Prince of Wales has been "sharply rebuked" by the Queen for going to a theatre at a time when the Court was in mourning, it is a most absurd fact. [PDF, Timeline]

RACQUET AND ATHLETICS

New York Times. Mar 8, 1886

There are no finer club houses of the kind in the world than those of the Racquet Court Club and of the New-York Athletic Club. The stylish "Queen Anne" of the former, on the northeast corner of Sixth-avenue and Twenty-sixth-street, attracts attention from the fact that it seems to be perched upon the stones ... [PDF, Timeline]

EVOLUTION OF THE CLUB

New York Times. May 30, 1886

Dining clubs, that is those which meet only on special occasions solely for the purpose of a social dinner, are probably as numerous as the private card clubs, These clubs are more in accordance with the originating idea of clubs in the bygone days of the Elizabethan era than the pretentious social clubs of the present day,... [PDF, Timeline]

WHERE CARDS ARE PLAYED

New York Times. May 9, 1886

There is scarcely a prominent Wallstreet coterle or local corporation that does not include a little private card club that meets up town in the evening. These clubs are as numerous as the various ward political organizations. Usually these gaming clubs are strictly private--that is, no outsiders are ever admitted... [PDF, Timeline]

PLANS FOR THE FUNERAL

New York Times. Nov 21, 1886

Yesterday morning, in order that intimate friends who called at ex-President Arthur's house might not have to go away without looking at the face of the dead, and for the further purpose of sparing the family such intrusion upon their privacy as would be necessarily attendant upon visits to the upper floor, the body of the dead General was brought down to the parlor. [PDF, Timeline]

MRS. GROVER CLEVELAND AT HOME.

New York Times. Dec 25, 1887

When the historian of the future writes the histories of the "Ladies of the White House" he will have a bright page for Mrs. Frances Folsom Cleveland, the wife of the twenty-second President of the United States. Other Presidents have shared the honors of the Executive Mansion with wives whose personal attractiveness, ... [PDF, Timeline]

A CLUB OF DELTA PSI MEN

New York Times. Feb 20, 1887

The ornate little building on the north side of East Twenty-eighth-street, between Madison and Fourth avenues, with a facade of red and yellow brick in the style of the Renaissance and a churchlike roof, is often supposed by passers by to be some religious institution ... [PDF, Timeline]

MEMBERSHIP OF THE CLUBS

New York Times. Jan 17, 1887

There is much enterprise at this season in the clubs whose membership is not complete to fill up the list. Clubs with completed membership, insuring the maximum income and a more numerous patronage, are regarded as more "solid," and consequently enduring, than those whose limit is unsatisfied. [PDF, Timeline]

BEYOND ENDURANCE.

New York Times. Jan 5, 1887

The newspaper cut, in its best aspect, is bad enough generally, but when it invades the privacy of the death chamber and pictures the final scenes of that most solemn hour, making ridiculous the occasion by its impossible and improbable caricatures, it is time that public ... [PDF, Timeline]

THE MORALS OF CLUB LIFE.

New York Times. Mar 6, 1887

The relations of club life to domestic life often form the subject of animated discussion. The married members are pleased to consider the club an annex of the home, while the bachelors declare it is a preparatory school, as it were, for the comforts and joys of the married state. [PDF, Timeline]

FARLEY'S PRIVATE MATTERS

New York Times. Mar 8, 1887

At yesterday's session of Col. Bacon's investigating committee, at the Brooklyn City Hall, Mr. Parsons hammered again particularly hard at the Sheriff's office, and succeeded in de veloping the fact that the Sheriff of Kings County was not only very shaky as to his ability to read and write correctly, but that his knowledge of at least the financial conduct of his office was, in the extreme, limited. [PDF, Timeline]

MIDNIGHT TALKS AT THE CLUB.

New York Times. Jul 14, 1889

I made one of my rare visits to Tom Benedict's fireside last night and we walked down to the club together. It looked as though Tom had been imprudently taking his wife into his confidence in the matter of the discussions of the "Owls." She had an uneasy, half-anxious way about her that was not usual, and I felt more constraint in her presence than before, though ... [PDF, Timeline]

1890

THE BALLOT-REFORM VETO

New York Times. Apr 1, 1890

ALBANY, March 31. -- Gov. Hill transmitted to the Legislature to-night the following veto of the Saxton bill: [PDF, Timeline]

AT REST BESIDE HIS WIFE

New York Times. Feb 26, 1890

The funeral of John Jacob Astor yesterday was marked by simplicity. A procession of a few carriages from the house of mourning to the church, the reading of the burial service from the ritual, and the consignment of the body to the grave were its features in their order. The privacy of the family was not invaded either at their home or at the grave. [PDF, Timeline]

PHOTOGRAPHERS AT WORK.

New York Times. Jun 29, 1890

Yachting is just now the most popular amusement for the amateur photographers who are out for pictures. The big regattas of the yacht clubs give them ample opportunity to secure pictures of the swift-flying craft under full canvas. The yacht pictures are pretty to look upon and are always admired by interested friends. [PDF, Timeline]

AN EXODUS OF ENGINEERS.

New York Times. Mar 2, 1890

The rate at which engineer officers are resigning from the navy is producing little short of consternation in naval circles, and it is feared that unless the Navy Department takes prompt measures to either check the wholesale resignations or fill up the vacancies the service will very shortly be in an unhappy condition. The only explanation advanced is the great number of lucrative positions offered them by shipbuilding firms and iron and steel works undertaking Government contracts. [PDF, Timeline]

SHALL THE DOORS BE CLOSED

New York Times. May 13, 1890

The New-York Presbytery held a long meeting in the lecture room of the Scotch Church, in West Fourteenth Street, yesterday afternoon and had an unusually lively session. Ten young men were examined for licenses to preach, but the most interesting part of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of the advisability of making public the proceedings of the Presbytery by admitting reporters to the sessions. [PDF, Timeline]

MR. BOOTH'S BIRTHDAY.

New York Times. Nov 14, 1890

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A PHYSIOLOGIST'S WIFE.

New York Times. Sep 21, 1890

Professor Ainslie Grey had not come down to breakfast at the usual hour. The presentation chiming clock which stood between the terra cotta busts of Claude Bernard and John Hunter upon the dining room mantelpiece had rung out the half hour and the three-quarters. Now its golden hand was verging upon the nine and yet there were no signs of the master of the house. [PDF, Timeline]

HER POINT OF VIEW.

New York Times. Sep 21, 1890

Two well-dressed women bustled into one of the numerous ladies' restaurants of the shopping district a day or two ago, and after rejecting several tables that were offered to them as they passed through the room, finally found satisfactory places in a well-lighted corner. They were important and finical from the first. At the beginning of the meal one found her spoon sticky and the other thought her napkin damp, and so on -- all valid grounds for complaint, perhaps, except that the manner of criticism and the general effect of the critics were of a nature to arouse the suspicion that the restaurant table and service were equal, if not superior, to those associated with the home mahogany. [PDF, Timeline]

THE SENATOR'S IDLE HOURS.

New York Times. Aug 30, 1891

COHASSER, Mass., Aug. 29. -- "Down the Jerusalem Road! See the houses of Crane, Robson, and Barrett! All aboard!" [PDF, Timeline]

A LOT OF OLD GOSSIPS.

New York Times. Mar 2, 1891

No policeman is ignorant of the existence of the "Third House" in the department, and few have failed at one time or another to be subjects of its deliberations and comments. Its members may be called delegates from the several precincts and squads, and they are generally what are known as ordinance officers, who are soft-plank barnacles, who look after violations of the municipal and other codes, and trot errands and are rewarded by exemption from strict patrol duty aud a quasi-detective rank. [PDF, Timeline]

ANSWERED BY MR. FOSTER.

New York Times. May 23, 1891

WASHINGTON, May 22. -- Secretary Foster has written a severe letter to George Borgfeldt & Co. of New-York City in reply to a communication from that firm asking that an annual pass be issued to them, giving access to the Appraiser's Stores at that port. In their letter to the Secretary the Borgfeldt firm states that it imports large quantities of articles "of a complex nature," making it necessary to confer with the Appraiser at frequent intervals. [PDF, Timeline]

The Rights of Privacy.

New York Times. Jul 19, 1896

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THE ELLSWORTH BILL.

New York Times. Dec 18, 1897

When Senator ELLSWORTH introduced last year his bill to prevent the publication of portraits without the consent of the originals, his apparent purpose commanded the sympathy of many persons who doubted both the efficacy and the legitimacy of the means by which he proposed to attain his end. That end was apparently the protection of privacy, which is in much need of protection. [PDF, Timeline]

A "NEW JOURNALIST'S" PLAN

New York Times. Feb 7, 1897

When Maria Barberi, at the end of her second trial, on Thursday evening, Dec. 10, 1896, was pronounced not guilty of murder, it was the common belief that the public interest which had been awakened by her extraordinary case would quickly subside, and that she would be allowed to pass into the obscurity which was natural and agreeable to her. [PDF, Timeline]

CHAPMAN HEARING ENDED.

New York Times. Jan 14, 1897

Testimony in the Chapman case was concluded yesterday. The question of whether or not the Police Captain exceeded his authority in interrupting the Seeley dinner at Sherry's, Dec. 19, now rests with the Board of Police Commissioners. [PDF, Timeline]

CAPT. CHAPMAN ON TRIAL

New York Times. Jan 9, 1897

The testimony of the second day in the trial, at Police Headquarters, of Capt. Chapman, charged with unlawfully interrupting the Seeley dinner at Sherry's, Dec. 19, was listened to by a crowd that filled the room to its capacity. [PDF, Timeline]

MORMON ELDERS EXPELLED..

New York Times. Jun 26, 1897

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OLD PRINCIPLES UPHELD

New York Times. Jun 8, 1897

POUGHKEEPSIE, June 7. -- President Taylor's baccalaureate address at Vassar College yesterday is being generally commented upon here to-day. In the condensed report sent out yesterday several strong points were omitted. Following is the important part of his talk to the students: [PDF, Timeline]

MR. CHANLER NEEDS REST

New York Times. Oct 14, 1897

John Armstrong Chanler, lawyer and clubman, and great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, the founder of the Astor family in this country, was committed to the Bloomingdale Asylum about the middle of last February because of his alleged tendency to hallucinations, and the manifestation of symptoms of a nervous collapse. [PDF, Timeline]

W.W. ASTOR AND CLIVEDEN..

New York Times. Feb 4, 1898

LONDON, Feb. 3. -- The Daily Chronicle to-day publishes a letter, signed "English Citizen," in which, after referring to the beauties of Cliveden, the residence near London of William Waldorf Astor, and the "liberty the former noble owners allowed the public in the park, gardens, and house," the writer continues: [PDF, Timeline]

TO HEDGE OUT PRYING EYES.

New York Times. Oct 23, 1898

Plans were filed yesterday with the Department of Buildings for a four-and-a-half-story sheet-iron fence to be erected in the rear of the three-story and basement dwelling at 140 East Eightieth Street, owned by Mrs. Hannah Asiel, and occupied by herself and Jacob Asiel, her husband, who is a dealer in coal. [PDF, Timeline]

BUILDING CODE ATTACKED

New York Times. Sep 10, 1899

It is likely that the Tenement House Committee of the Charity Organization Society will make a strong protest against the adoption by the City Council of the new Building Code. The code which has just been drafted by the Building Code Commission will be taken up for adoption by the City Council Tuesday, after a final public hearing to-morrow afternoon. [PDF, Timeline]

1900

JOHN J. INGALLS'S FUNERAL..

New York Times. Aug 20, 1900

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TWO IN AMBULANCE TOO MANY..

New York Times. Jan 28, 1900

A Broadway cable car had bumped its way down to a point opposite Barclay Street yesterday morning when, amid the startled exclamations of women, a tall, lank young man slipped from his seat to the floor. His eyes rolled and froth lined his lips. The car stopped, blocking those behind, while all hands aboard held a consultation. [PDF, Timeline]

THE GOSSIP OF PARIS.

New York Times. Mar 4, 1900

PARIS, Feb. 16. -- The question of the Nicaragua Canal has not excited French public feeling very greatly. The people who lost all their money in Panama have no means of rousing the press to action, and their grievance is of so old a date, and the political scandal involved in it was so terrible, that nothing more is likely to be heard about them or it. [PDF, Timeline]

King Edward's Queer Automobile.

New York Times. Aug 25, 1901

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No More "Joints" in Hiawatha..

New York Times. Feb 4, 1901

ST. JOSEPH, Mo., Feb. 3. -- The wrecking of "joints" at Hiawatha, Kan., which began there yesterday under the leadership of the temperance people, was completed to-day, and when it was finished not a "joint" in the town remained. The proprietors have fled. [PDF, Timeline]

INDECENT AND CRUEL JOURNALISM.

New York Times. May 5, 1901

Sir: Is there no one to cry shame on the recent proceedings of certain newspapers of the metropolis for the indecent and cruel treatment of a worthy family in this community which has recently been bereaved of its head? [PDF, Timeline]

MAGAZINE'S SALE STOPPED.

New York Times. May 16, 1901

In the serving of an injunction against the Broadway Publishing Company, forbidding the further circulation of the May number of The Broadway magazine, a comparatively new point in legal procedure has been called to public attention. [PDF, Timeline]

Czolgosz May Be Moved.

New York Times. Sep 12, 1901

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THE BROADER HUMAN INTEREST.

New York Times. Oct 20, 1901

For its broader human interest the censors of the present time visit the press with their reproaches. They tell us it has sunk to a low estate and wastes itself upon ignoble "chronicles of small beer." They condemn it for giving to the unimportant doings of persons of no account the space it might devote to weighty matters, and denounce the prevailing tendency to print much news about all sorts and conditions of men as an invasion of privacy and a debasement of journalism. [PDF, Timeline]

An Englishman's Home Awakes Britain's Military Ardor

New York Times. Feb 21, 1909

LONDON, Feb. 13. -- Guy Du Maurier's sensational patriotic play, "An Englishman's Home," is the one topic of the day. Every home in the length and breadth of the kingdom has been stirred as not before in years. It is difficult to reflect the depth of this popular excitement which has swept over England unstayed, the impelling force nothing more serious than mere mummery on a London Stage. [PDF, Timeline]

1910

COURT CUTS DOWN VERDICT FOR BINNS

New York Times. Mar 30, 1911

Supreme Court Justice Greenbaum yesterday reduced to $2,500 the $12,500 verdict obtained by John R. Binns against the Vitagraph Company of America for unauthorized use of his name and picture in connection with a picture drama, "Saved by Wireless." In the course of his opinion Justice Greenbaum condemned newspaper editorials, which criticised the verdict as inadequate, and hinted that imagination played as large a part in the newspaper reports of the Floride-Republic disaster as it did in the purported pictorial representation of Binn's exploit. [PDF, Timeline]

1920

ARBITRATION COURT GIVES OUT ITS RULES

New York Times. Jan 7, 1923

The rules for the conduct of the Court of Arbitration, formulated with the advice of the leading Judges in New York State, were made public yesterday by the Arbitration Society of America. They were drawn up by a committee consisting of Justice Charles L. Guy of the Supreme Court, former United States Senator James A. O'Gorman and Frank H. Sommer, Dean of the New York University Law School. [PDF, Timeline]

DETECTIVES TO INSURE PRIVACY TO M'CORMICK

New York Times. Feb 10, 1923

CHICAGO, Feb. 9 -- Special interviewers who would inquire into the plans of Harold F. McCormick and his wife, Ganna Walska, are informed that henceforth they will not be received. A reporter calling at the McCormick mansion today was stopped by guards, who turned out to be four operatives especially engaged to keep newspaper men who would interview them away from the McCormick place while Mr. McCormick and his wife are in residence. [PDF, Timeline]

METHODISTS DEMAND ARMY DRINK INQUIRY

New York Times. Mar 18, 1923

WASHINGTON, March 17. -- Under the heading "Turn On the Light," a demand that the Secretaries of War and Navy do everything possible to find out if officers named in a recently published Washington bootleggers' list actually bought liquors from this man was made by the Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals of the Methodist Episcopal Church today. [PDF, Timeline]

Article 7 -- No Title.

New York Times. Oct 14, 1923

LONDON, Oct. 13. -- Although the uncovering of the Oglethorpe vault has not stirred popular feeling as did the hunt for the coffin of Pocahontas -- doubtless owing to the reverence and privacy observed at Granham -- there have been many sporadic protests against the removal of the General's body. [PDF, Timeline]

New Ideas in Sleeping Cars To Make Night Travel Easy

New York Times. Apr 27, 1924

BACK in 1860, when a man went away to do overnight traveling by railroad, his family felt that he would never be quite the same again. Night traveling then was done in day coaches. Survivors reported that an hour spent this way seemed to take up six hundred minutes, and that destinations appeared to lead the trains a merry chase instead of waiting to be arrived at. [PDF, Timeline]

DAVIS SENDS THANKS BY RADIO TO M'ADOO

New York Times. Jul 13, 1924

LOCUST VALLEY, L.I., July 12. -- Today, for the first-time since his nomination last Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, John W. Davis spent a day at home with his family. It had been his intention to make his week-end visit one of rest and to meet only a few friends. [PDF, Timeline]

CHARGES BY ALIEN DENIED BY CURRAN.

New York Times. Jul 18, 1924

Charges of mal-administration on Ellis Island were made yesterday by Miss Anna Hans, a trained nurse from Germany, who was deported on the Hamburg-American line steamship Westphalia on the ground that she was in danger of becoming a public charge. Commissioner of Immigration Henry H. Curran later denied all of the charges specifically. [PDF, Timeline]

PRINCE'S RANCH AWAITS HIM.

New York Times. Sep 4, 1924

TORONTO, Ontario, Sept. 3. -- W.L. Carlyle of Calgary, manager of the Prince of Wales's ranch in Alberta, is here. When asked about the Prince's visit, he said. [PDF, Timeline]

ASK ARMY TO HELP SOLVE GIRL MURDER

New York Times. Sep 19, 1924

Believing that they have eliminated most other suspects in the Elizabeth Johnson murder case, the authorities of Middlesex County, New Jersey, have asked the assistance of the War Department in finding Harvey Selhaver of Spencer, Iowa, whom they are eager to question. Selhaver was a farmhand on the Johnson place, and was discharged because of his attentions to the 15-year-old girl, just a week before Elizabeth was slain on the edge of Carnegie Lake in Kingston, N.J. [PDF, Timeline]

CITY'S TRYSTING PLACES NOT SECLUDED NOWADAYS

New York Times. Sep 21, 1924

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Article 4 -- No Title

New York Times. Oct 12, 1924

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NITRATE COMPANY LOSES.

New York Times. Apr 7, 1925

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MRS. COOLIDGE RETURNS TO SIMPLE LIFE

New York Times. Aug 9, 1925

NO trespassing." In black letters the warning is painted on a small signboard that rises six inches above the tops of the swaying blades of grass that make the soft green carpet of the White Court lawn. Nothing on the sign indicates that it is a warning to keep the curious off the property of the Summer residence of the President of the United States, for beneath is the modest statement -"Private property of F.E. Smith." [PDF, Timeline]

NEW YORK'S 100 NEEDIEST CASES

New York Times. Dec 6, 1925

IN New York City there are one hundred cases which, above all others, require aid. They are the first call on charity. They should be considered first as Christmas time approaches. [PDF, Timeline]

COMPLAIN OF BUS 'PEEPERS'

New York Times. Mar 13, 1926

WASHINGTON, March 12 (AP). -- Residents of this city who generally occupy the position of sideline spectators as national issues come and go, or linger forever, in Congress, now have an issue of their own that threatens to divide them into two factions -- those who ride the upper deck of passenger busses and those whose second floor bedrooms may be viewed by the former. [PDF, Timeline]

BOOK ON NOTABLES MAKES LONDON GASP

New York Times. Nov 20, 1926

LONDON, Nov. 19. -- Woodrow Wilson, Lady Astor, Walter Hines Page and Mark Twain figure, with European monarchs, statesmen and other world-famous celebrities, in "The Whispering Gallery," a book by an unnamed author, which, published today, is the sensation of the hour here, and is inspiring the question. "Who wrote it?" from thousands of readers who are chuckling with glee, gasping with amazement or quivering with anger as they peruse its pages. [PDF, Timeline]

PRESS EXECUTIVES CONDEMN TABLOIDS.

New York Times. Feb 10, 1927

Revolt against tabloid newspapers spread yesterday to a luncheon of the Broadway Association at the Hotel Astor, where editors and business executives of other New York newspapers denounced the picture papers for exploiting indecent news in their daily issues. [PDF, Timeline]