If you were a corrupt or incompetent official in 19th century New York City, Philip Merkle was your worst nightmare: an idealistic German immigrant with subpoena power. As city coroner from 1881-1885, he investigated murders, suicides, and gruesome accidents, seeking to right every wrong and improve every aspect of the system he encountered. He was also a champion for social order and progress, founding aid organizations dedicated to advancing his fellow immigrants. Implacable foe of Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed, friend to Teddy Roosevelt and Jacob Riis, Merkle’s story is ripe for dramatization and greater renown.

We are talking today with Suffolk County Community College librarian Bruce Seger, the man who is shining a light on Merkle and compelling us to take an episode away from Long Island to investigate. Bruce’s new book, Matters of Life and Death: The Remarkable Journey of Dr. Philip Merkle, is a fictionalized retelling of the five years of research Bruce put into uncovering this eventful life. Merkle is a distant relative along the Seger family tree and once he started looking, Bruce couldn’t believe what he found.

Further Research

• Matters of Life and Death: The Remarkable Journey of Dr. Philip Merkle
• Bruce Seger
• New York City research
  • NYS Historic Newspapers database
  • Brooklyn Daily Eagle
  • New York Municipal Archives collections
• NYC History-themed shows
  • The Knick
  • The Alienist
  • Copper
• Jacob Riis: Revealing “How the Other Half Lives” exhibition from the Library of Congress
• Dan Sickles Trial: 1859
• Freinsheim, Germany
• Image citation:
  General Research Division, The New York Public Library. “New York City –The heart of the retail trade on the East Side” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1878-09-28. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a1f481e0-db46-0134-e701-17158dd5a85f