The Physiology of New York Boarding-Houses

Acknowledgments

ix A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S Like the city it surveys, this book has been a collaborative creation, and many years in the making. Its foundations trace to my time in graduate school at Chapel Hill. With the support of a Gilder Lehrman Dissertation Fellowship in the summer 2004, I first encountered Gunn’s Physiology at the New York Public Library (NYPL); that institution’s crumbling copy, so precariously preserved, at once captured my imagination, and aroused my concern for the fate of a text that begs to be read. Soon I would learn that Physiology has retained its admirers , among them the historians John F. Kasson and William J. Rorabaugh. Both scholars have encouraged my work from the start, and remain friends and mentors to this day. I thank them for their support and belief. No less supportive have been the libraries and their respective staff who aided me in my research and editorial work. These include the Humanities and Social Sciences Library of the NYPL, both Special Collections and the Microforms Division at the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library, and the Interlibrary Loan Office at the University of Washington’s Suzzalo Library, in Seattle. The Missouri Historical Society, in St. Louis, has shared Gunn’s insightful personal diary in true collegial spirit. And special mention belongs to Autumn L. Mather, senior library assistant in Reference Services at The Newberry Library. Her timely, generous intervention saved me months in preparing my final manuscript . The entire team at Rutgers University Press has been prompt in its responses to my many queries, and patient in all matters large and small. I could not have asked for more able helpers. My wife, Kari, the ablest helper of all, knows best what went into the making of this volume. She is my final authority in all things, and the collaborator who matters most. ...