For more than a century, it was almost impossible to find out much about people buried on Hart Island. But in 2008, that all changed — thanks in large part to a woman named Melinda Hunt.
Melinda is a visual artist who has spent more than 30 years documenting America’s largest public cemetery, and advocating for families with loved ones buried there. She is the founder of The Hart Island Project, a searchable database of more than 75,000 burial records.
This week, producer Alissa Escarce sits down with Melinda to discuss the history of Hart Island and how it’s changed over the last few decades. This is episode four of our series The Unmarked Graveyard. New episodes published each week.
The Press is the Enemy
The View from the 79th Floor
The Dropped Wrench
Prisoners of War
The Working Tapes of Studs Terkel
Stories from a Vanishing New York
Shirley Chisholm: Unbought and Unbossed
The Square Deal
Amanda's Diary: Revisited
Last Witness: Surviving the Tulsa Race Riot
Juan's Diaries: Undocumented, Then and Now
The Bonus Army
The Working Tapes
The Story of Jane
The Ski Troops of WWII
When Nazis Took Manhattan
A Voicemail Valentine
The Border Wall
Thembi's Diary
Bonus Episode: Hear the World Differently
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