May 31, 2002

Reflecting back on the earlier methods of payment used by the hospital puts the problems of today's record-keeping systems into perspective.

Payment records from the past also offer an interesting glimpse into MGH history. Take the payments that were rendered to the many carpenters, diggers, mule drivers and other workmen who constructed the Bulfinch Building between 1818 and 1823. The collections of the MGH Archives include original handwritten bills for services, presented by workers to the Superintendent of Building, who submitted them to the Treasurer of the MGH Corporation. Wages were paid in cash. Employees acknowledged that they had "Rec'd payt." by signing the bills or, if illiterate, by drawing an "X." Splatters and smudges on the documents suggest that such transactions often occurred outdoors.

As the bills indicate, the labor of mules was more expensive than that of men. Mule driver Jonas Meriam, for example, billed $5 for each day's work for "team and man." Workman Rufus Sharkley, however, received only $31 for 23 days of his own labor.

In 1823, James McAllister, who was Superintendent of Building at the time that the Bulfinch Building was being completed, submitted his own request for payment: "For 273 1/4 days services as Superintendent of the work, $819.75."

An example of an original bill of service