So today, my tiny scanner presents to you an Old Chestnut. One of my earliest acquisitions and still one of my favorites. The book itself is interesting enough: the large 1894 published guide for New York at the World's Columbia Exposition (1893). Many fascinating presentations (I'm particularly fond of the epic-scaled obsessiveness with which the canned fruit was arranged, towering in a heap). Walls of wool, botanical gardens, inventions, an Iroquois longhouse and a woolly mammoth...but what caught my eye, in truth, was the following.
REPORT ON THE CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS EXHIBIT: EXHIBIT CLASSED IN LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT, BUT INSTALLED IN THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL BUILDING
A special effort was made by the exposition authorities to secure from all the States exhibits of the methods employed in their charitable, penal, correctional and reformatory institutions, and a special bureau was formed for that purpose in the liberal arts department. New York's board heartily supported the idea and obtained the co-operation of the State Board of Charities. The latter, under the personal supervision of their secretary, Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, prepared a systematic statement of the laws and conditions governing the work in New York, and tabulated charts of results obtained and developments noted, supplemented by models of the best institutions in the State. The Board of General Managers on their part defrayed all expenses connected with the exhibit. As a tangible and graphic representation of the results of many years of liberal expenditure of public money and of the labors of earnest, able and devoted men and women, it possessed a special interest for our own citizens and gave to visitors from other States and countries an impressive conception of the charitable munificence of New York. It is much to be regretted that the installation of the exhibit from New York was so poorly arranged by the exposition director in charge. Scattered about the Anthropological Building in several different places, in accordance with the exposition idea of a comparative exhibit by States and countries of similar subjects, the display lost a great deal of its impressiveness. The paucity of material rendered the "comparative" display in this department a total failure from a scientific standpoint, and the State displays suffered correspondingly in effect because of this fractional arrangement. Much of the confusion was probably due to the indifferent attitude of the exposition officials toward the liberal arts department in the construction period of the fair, and the very late date and consequent hurry in which the Anthropological Building was completed and the exhibits installed.
Among the most noteworthy exhibits from New York in this department were the Rochester Industrial School, containing a full representation of the studies pursued and work done in the institution; the model of the Elmira Reformatory; model of the Utica insane asylum; model of the Letchworth Poorhouse, and splendid series of forty-two statistical charts tabulating volumes of information.
The Letchworth Poorhouse especially attracted wide attention. It was designed by the Hon. Wm. P. Letchworth, of Buffalo, who has been for many years a member of the State Board of Charities, and has made poorhouse architecture a study for twenty years. The objects attained in the model are perfect sanitation, convenience and economy in administration, protection against fire, and a proper classification of the inmates according to their peculiar physical and mental condition, and a complete separation of the sexes. The model on exhibition provided for the accomodation of eighty persons. It is a matter of congratulation that the State was enabled to show a building which virtually represented the experience of the world, and will prove a model for similar instituions in this and other countries.
The following extract from the current annual report of the State Board of Charities will summarize the scope and character of the exhibit:
NEW YORK STATE CHARITABLE EXHIBIT AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION
"At the request of the Managers of the State of New York at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, this board prepared exhibits of the penal, charitable, eleemosynary, correctional and reformatory work of the State, which were forwarded to Chicago early in the year, and assigned space in connection with similar exhibits from other States and countries at the exposition. These exhibits, in accordance with instructions issued by the bureau of charities and correction, approved by the director general of the exposition, then in course of preparation and referred to in the last annual report of the board, were as follows:
"1. A map of the State, designating in block characters the location of all its penal, charitable, eleemosynary, correctional and reformatory institutions.
"2. A directory of the penal, charitable, eleemosynary, correctional and reformatory institutions of this State, showing the object and the purposes of such instututions and their classification by county.
"3. A set of statistical charts, forty-two in number, relating to crime, pauperism, insanity, immigration, etc., with the annual expenditures therefor, and the value of the property of all kinds in the State, held for penal, charitable, correctional and reformatory purposes, October 1, 1892.
"4. A complete set of the annual and special reports of this board, with copies of circulars, blanks, forms, tables, etc., issued from time to time in the prosecution of its work.
"5. Photographic books or albums of various charitable, correctional and reformatory institutions of the State, with the history, objects and purposes, government and management, receipts and expenditures, and the number of beneficiaries of such institutions, prepared, at the request of the board, by their respective managers.
"6. A model of an approved plan for poorhouses, which special reference to separation of the sexes and classification of inmates, heating, lighting, ventilation and drainage, projected and designed by Commissioner Letchworth and constructed under his supervision and direction.
"In addition to these exhibits by this board, other exhibits were prepared by various charitable, correctional and reformatory institutions of the State and sent directly to the exposition, among which were the following: A model of the reformatory at Elmira; a model of a detached hospital building of the Utica State Hospital; a model of the hospital building of the State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Young Women at Newark, with numerous photographic views of the institution; a large collection of technological work, by the State Industrial School at Rochester; and photographic views of the buildings, plans, etc., of the Buffalo State Hospital at Buffalo, and the St. Lawrence State Hospital at Ogdensburg. The institutions for feeble-minded children, for the blind and the deaf, made their exhibits through their respective national associations for these classes; and, besides those above enumerated, numerous other charitable, correctional and reformatory institutions, societies and associations of the State prepared and forwarded exhibits, through various channels, and were given space at the exposition under the classification to which they respectively belonged.
" It will thus be seen that this State contributed largely to the penal, charitable, correctional and reformatory exhibit at this exposition, and it is believed that its display in this direction, both in the extent and variety of its subjects and the comprehensive and artistic manner in which they were presented, compared favorably with such exhibits by other States and countries, reflecting credit alike upon the State and its institutions. In an address upon the grounds of the exposition upon the occasion of 'New York Day,' his excellency, Governor Flower, referring to the various classes of exhibits by this State, spoke of its charitable exhibits as follows:
" 'The great work which New York State and its civil subdivisions do for the relief of pauperism, for the care of the insane and the education of the defective classes, has been demonstrated at this exposition as it has never been before. The whole range of activity of the charitable, orrectional and reformatory institutions of the State has been shown in a way which makes the subject clearer than volumes of reports would do. It is the boast of our christian civilization that it cares for those whom pagan civilization neglected. The private and public beneficence of New York transcends all limitations of sect or creed, and its graphic delineation here may well challenge the attention of the world.'
"These and other exhibits, the property of the State, have been returned to Albany, and are waiting legislative action for their proper care and proposed permanent exposition."
Me again. Being a native New Yorker, I find the above fascinating as I'm familiar with the institutions mentioned...at least some of them. My mind boggles a bit at phrases like the above comment on christianity and paganism. Now this may seem unfair, but of all the varied things they could present in full-page illustrative glory, they chose the "Kemmler" chair.
On the preceding page it states: "Kemmler" chair; first chair and apparatus used in the world to inflict the death penalty by electricity; first used at Auburn prison August 6, 1890, for the execution of Kemmler.
I mentioned this was an old chestnut, because there are a few potential readers out there who will recognize my incessant obsession with this device. I wish I could explain it; it is an interwovern guilt and shame, and a bamboozled perplexity regarding the decorative punched metal (tin?) seat. I wonder who made that seat. I wonder if Kemmler noticed it. Things like this bother me.
The extremely grim details of the execution can be found here: William Kemmler
Lucky you, more to come! Many books to pry open, many inscrutable and obtuse thoughts to delve.
"They would have done better using an axe."
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