Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

Read More

New York City becomes the first place in the colonies to require midwives to be licensed.

1716

RHRR
COL

Previously, in England, midwives were licensed by the Church of England and overseen by bishops, who were charged with preventing witchcraft. This also prevented midwives from charging their own fees, providing care for those terminating a pregnancy, practicing "magical" forms of healing, hiding children born out of wedlock, and refusing to attend the births of people living in poverty. The New York licensure ordinance echoes these standards.