Privacy Timeline

Harvard University

Privacy Timeline: Identity

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1870

THE UDDERZOOK CASE.

New York Times. Jul 5, 1874

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has given a final decision in the famous Udderzook trial, adverse to the prisoner, and now only by a successful appeal for elemency to the Governor can he escape execution. This is a strange case, it growing out of a combination by two persons to cheat insurance companies, and the murder of one of them by the other... [PDF, Timeline]

1890

The Rights of Privacy.

New York Times. Jul 19, 1896

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NEW YORK LEGISLATURE

New York Times. Apr 2, 1897

ALBANY, April 1. -- The bill of the Committee on Miscellaneous Corporations, reducing the price of gas in New York City 5 cents a year until the price reaches $1, was taken up in the Senate Committee of the Whole this afternoon. [PDF, Timeline]

THE WEEK IN THE CLUB WORLD.

New York Times. Mar 21, 1897

Pool tournaments at the Metropolitan and Calumet Clubs, picture exhibitions at the Colonial and Manhattan Clubs, the opening of the new house of the Engineers' Club, and the annual meeting of the Manhattan Club have been the chief incidents of interest in the club world during the last week. [PDF, Timeline]

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]

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]

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]

Article 1 -- No Title

New York Times. Sep 21, 1899

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1900

BROOKLYN PRISON CONDEMNED

New York Times. Jan 4, 1900

ALBANY, Jan. 3 -- The State Prison Commission to-day-adopted a report condemning the woman's prison at the Raymond Street Jail, Brooklyn. The commission also adopted a resolution ordering that the authorities of New York City be notified and directed to take action to remedy the conditions, otherwise the State Commission threatens to secure an indictment of those responsible for the conditions in the jail. [PDF, Timeline]

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]

CONDITIONS IN TENEMENTS

New York Times. Nov 27, 1900

Airshafts were the one evil concerning which all witnesses agreed, in testifying before the public hearing of the Tenement House Commission of the State of New York at the Charities Building last night. About a dozen witnesses were examined, and nearly all of them are or have been tenement dwellers. [PDF, Timeline]

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]

A CITY SOCIETY'S CHARGE

New York Times. Mar 30, 1901

The twenty-seventh annual report of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice was made public yesterday. In addition to giving the details of the work of the society for the year 1900, the report criticises some City Magistrates and policemen for disclosing the fact that warrants had been issued against poolrooms and gambling houses. [PDF, Timeline]

HEARD ABOUT TOWN.

New York Times. Apr 25, 1901

An observing attendant at the recent concert by the Yale Glee Club at the Waldorf-Astoria remarked the fact that about all of the ladies in attendance had a touch of red in the costume, while there was hardly one who had any of the Yale color -- blue -- about her. Crimson was the prevailing shade of the red worn, too, as if to emphasize the fact that the women, and girls were admirers of Yale's most hated rival, Harvard. [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]

THE MAN IN THE STREET.

New York Times. Aug 25, 1901

EX-UNITED States Senator "Tom" Carter of Montana has the type of face that, decorated as it is by a neatly trimmed white chin whisker, suggests the typical gentleman farmer as seen in the cartoons of the comic paper. The Senator was coming out of the Waldorf-Astoria the other morning with an old travel-battered handbag in his hand. [PDF, Timeline]

King Edward's Queer Automobile.

New York Times. Aug 25, 1901

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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]

HALL CAINE AND LEO XIII.

New York Times. Dec 15, 1901

Mr. Hall Caine contributes an article on the Pope to the Christmas number of Household Words, which has recently been acquired by his son. In the preparation of "The Eternal City," Mr. Hall Caine had many views, public and private, of his Holiness. Here is a sketch of Leo XIII, in the Basilica of St. Peter's: [PDF, Timeline]

RIGHT OF PRIVACY" DENIED.

New York Times. Jul 2, 1902

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GERMAN VIEW OF "PRIVACY."

New York Times. Oct 26, 1902

BERLIN, Oct. 17. -- In a recent editorial THE NEW YORK TIMES discussed the question of the "right of privacy." It is interesting to note that the subject now also receives much attention in the German press. This is due to the fact that the Reichstag will soon have to consider a bill which relates to the reproduction of photographs of private persons. [PDF, Timeline]

SANG AND DRANK THE NEW YEAR IN

New York Times. Jan 1, 1908

The real New Year's celebration of course was in the hundreds of hotels, restaurants, and cafes of Manhattan and Brooklyn. There was one common ambition on the part of the 100,000 persons who supped at midnight. That was fun. [PDF, Timeline]

1910

FORMULATES PLANS FOR THE NEW COURTS

New York Times. Jul 15, 1910

William McAdoo, the new Chief Police Magistrate of the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, announced yesterday the series of reforms in police court procedure by which he hopes to put the Inferior Courts law into effect. Here are the important changes: [PDF, Timeline]

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

CHILDREN'S COURTS.

New York Times. Oct 3, 1920

THE example set by the United States in establishing juvenile courts has been followed by all the principal countries of Europe. [PDF, Timeline]

BERNARD SHAW SHRINKS FROM HIS WIDE RENOWN

New York Times. May 2, 1926

BERNARD SHAW has taken out a monomark, a new device for the identification of human beings and their belongings. [PDF, Timeline]

FRIENDS PUT INTO FICTION ARE APT TO BECOME ENEMIES

New York Times. Aug 8, 1926

GENERALLY authors borrow heavily from the personality of their acquaintances, and many a bon mot, many a profound thought expressed over the dinner table, finds its way into next season's best seller. As a rule, however, authors are cautious in the matter of importing their friends wholesale. [PDF, Timeline]

MAKES STRONG PLEA FOR PRIVACY IN LIFE

New York Times. Oct 25, 1926

" The Character Value of Privacy" was the subject discussed yesterday by Dr. Henry Neumann at the meeting of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, held in the Academy of Music, Brooklyn. He said the desire of the young to direct their own lives sensibly should be encouraged. [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]

GLASGOW LISTENS TO SOUND OF FACES

New York Times. Feb 4, 1927

GLASGOW, Feb. 3. -- John Baird, inventor of television, told the home folks of Glasgow about it tonight. When he ventured to tell some of them several years ago that it might be possible to see through brick walls they answered him with the Scottish equivalent of "What's eating you?" and let it go at that. [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]

1930

WEST POINT COMMANDER ASKS FOR MORE SPACE

New York Times. Mar 16, 1930

A CRISIS has come about in the administration of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and, unless the Superintendent, Major Gen. William R. Smith, has the sympathetic understanding and aid of Congress, its usefulness as a school for the training of officers and leaders of troops will be greatly impaired. [PDF, Timeline]

ROCKEFELLER GREETS CENSUS ENUMERATOR

New York Times. Apr 22, 1930

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EINSTEIN WORKS AT SEA.

New York Times. Dec 5, 1930

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Internal Movies the Latest Threat to Personal Privacy

New York Times. Mar 29, 1931

[PDF, Timeline]