The following resources can help you get started on finding more details about the city of Boston and its police during 1850s.
First and foremost - please take a look at the Burns Library Archival Collection at Boston College for this diary.
You can also schedule a visit to the Burns Library reading room to access these documents in-person. Burns library is open to scholars and public to consult historical records. The timings for the visit and procedures can be found at the Burns Library website.
Apart from the diary that we have used, you can find more details about the Captain Edward Harwell Savaage at:
- Memoir by Edward H. Savage
- History of BPD by Edward H. Savage
- Edward H. Savage collection including some of his own poetry
For general details about Boston during this time period:
- Boston Public Library’s guide to 19th Century Newspapers has a good collection of sources for the time period.
- City documents regarding prisons, 1839 at Burns Library.
- Boston scrapbook beginning in 1826 at Burns Library.
- Newspaper clipping scrapbook beginning in 1839 at Burns Library.
- Boston City Census records available at City of Boston Archive.
- A treasure trove of documents around legislations in Boston available at City of Boston Archive.
- Old Maps of Boston from Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at Boston Public Library are a fantastic resource as well.
Overall, we hope that these will help you find the relevant historical context you might need when working with the dataset.