Museums, Medicine, and Mesmerism: A Historical Walking Tour

Join us for a tour through the city’s medical past!

From spectacles and fads to riots and epidemics, 19th-century New York had a wide variety of experiences when it came to the human body and its many ailments. This 2-hour historical walking tour takes you to the long-forgotten sites of the city’s old hospitals and almshouses, as well as the anatomical museums, “wonder cabinets” and dime museums where the human body was on full display. You’ll learn all about quack doctors and their patent medicines, the power of magnetism and “the water cure,” the city’s greatest public health challenge and some of the strangest cases in New York City’s medical history. This tour begins at City Hall Park, and ends near Spring Street and Broadway. Runs rain or shine, except in cases of severely inclement weather.

Founder and owner Andrea Janes is the author of BOROUGHS OF THE DEAD: New York City Ghost Stories, the book that inspired this company. The book is a work of fiction, but in the course of her research, she discovered the city was a wealth of ghostly, gory stories, and decided she wanted to share them with the world. Andrea is also the author of the YA novel GLAMOUR, and several short horror stories.

Tickets $20.