Edward Hartwell Savage (1812-1893)

North End Police Data (1854-59)

This site is based on the records of Captain Savage, who led one of the first police stations of Boston in the North End from 1854–1859.

His meticulous log of arrests, crimes and the public service by the police offers a rare, ground-level view of city life and law enforcement in a rapidly changing American neighborhood.

We’ve cleaned and organized this unique dataset so you can search, explore, and ask new questions.

Photo from Wells, Donna M. Boston Police Department. Arcadia Publishing Inc, 2003.

How to use this site?

For your best experience, we suggest the following uses to different pages:

• Detailed contexts about the different aspects of the project can be found at the About the Source. A bit About Captain Savage can also help contextualise the origin of the ledger used.
• Data page: This is the heart of our website. It shows how we have made this dataset from the diary. And it shows you how you can download this dataset.
• Example pages (Example 1 and Example 2): These pages are some of the ways in which you can use the data to deepen your understanding of the 19th century police work in Boston. This just scratches the surface of what is possible with a dataset like this.
• Interesting Discoveries page - is a selection of a few crime categories that we believe might be super interesting to explore as a historian. There is a lot of eye-catching stuff that can be found in this dataset, but these few categories, along with the example pages might help you start playing around with the data.
• Additional Resources page: This dataset, when used in conjunction with other historical sources could be your starting point for a discovery about our past. This collection of resources about the city of Boston can help you make sense of this data in a wide variety of ways. We encourage you to explore these sites as well to help understand more about the role of police in this time period.