Correction
Chronicles


Lives, times, places & events.

40+ presentations.
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Sing Sing
guard
befriends
inmate artist
trying to
support
family
with
window
shade
paintings
(example left).
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By Dr.
Robert L. Gold

NYCHS' 9-page presentation of Searching Sing Sing for
My Father: Harry N. Gold, Inmate #76577Y, 1924-1930
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Brooke Kroeger's Nellie Bly
Daredevil + Reporter + Feminist
Bly

Inside
Blackwell's

Madhouse
5-Page NYCHS excerpts presentation:
Bly in Blackwell's Island Madhouse (Before, During & After)
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Pierre Raphael's Inside Rikers Island:
A Chaplain's Search for God
13 NYCHS excerpts presentation pages.
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In April 2003, Auburn prison historian John Miskell (right) presented NYCHS with a NYS Senate volume of 1869 reports on prisons and other institutions (title page left).

NYCHS presents excerpts from reports by chaplains at Auburn, Sing Sing and Clinton prisons.

1869 NY
State
Prison
Chaplain
Reports

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Why was the Tombs the execution site for the only American ever hanged as a slave trader?
Tombs yard minus gallows (left) and with Gordon at gallows (right).
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Rikers’ Unsung Heroes of the 1904 General Slocum Disaster

By Karen Lamberton For the New York Correction History Society

Return to Brooklyn's Raymond St. Jail via vintage photos from retired CO Peter J. Ledwith.
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Question About Some NY Firsts: What links NYPD's 1st Black officer, NYC DOC's 1st female commissioner, NYC DOC's 1st Black commissioner, and NY Yankees' 1st baseman 'Iron Man'?
Answer: The 1st US city parole commission.

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Finding the 'Lost Chapel' of Rikers Island
Can you spot two chapels in this enlargement of a 1948 Rikers aerial photo section? Draw an imaginary vertical line through the center of the image. The church-like structure to the right of your imaginary line is the Catholic Rectory and Chapel of the Sacred Heart. Its remodeling for correctional command use prompted historical research leading to the discovery that a second chapel building had existed just across the road. It -- the Protestant Mission House and Chapel -- is the one to the left of your imaginary line. Read about its rediscovery in Finding the 'Lost Chapel' of Rikers Island.
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C. Godfrey Gunther: NYC jails governor & Civil War mayor - 7 chapter web bio
C. Godfrey Gunther: the volunteer fireman & jails governor who became NYC's 77th mayor. Though a Copperhead, he helped thwart Confederate terrorists trying to burn down the city. Though opposed to replacing volunteer companies with a paid force, he urged 'vol' comrades to obey the law setting it up. Though he led the Lincoln's obsequies, he vetoed their publication.

*Copyright on text. © 2001 by the New York Correction History Society and Thomas C. McCarthy. Non-commerical use of text permitted with citation of the society and/or its web site www.correctionhistory.org.
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Penal Excerpts from Reminiscences of New York by an Octogenarian (1816-60)

By Charles H. Haswell

Active in NY's civic life a half-century, Haswell's meticulous notes were published in 1896, the same year Correction emerged as a separate agency. A century later Jackson Era devotee Hal Morris posted them on his Tales of the Early Republic web site.
Emphasizing
penal law items,
NYCHS posts
these excerpts
with Hal Morris'
permission.
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DOCS' Fulton CF: 25 Years of Bronx Community Service


DOCS' Woodbourne Correctional Facility History -- 1935 to 1999


Penitentiary Origins in New York City:
Newgate & Bellevue in Manhattan,
Blackwells & Rikers Islands

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Anna & Austin's '600' School

Rikers Island's Civil War Letters

Patriot Prison
Window Preserved
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Eastern NY CF
Centennial Book

Evolution of the NYS
Prison System

Beauty & the Beast
At Ludlow St. Jail

NYC District Jails:
1800s-to-1949
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Hart Island
Mini-History

NYC DOC mini-history
from '46 annual report

The Continuing Story of
C.O. George Motchan

Rikers' C-76 Names
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Celebrating 50 Years Services to Correction Officers & Families

NYCHS' 6-Page Excerpts Edition of CCA's 28-Page Captains' Quarterly Al Mandanici 50th Anniversary Issue.

Brief History of Hart Island Nike Missile Site -- The Cold War in LI Sound --
By Donald E. Bender Special to the New York Correction History Society
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CANY history
Correctional Association of NY History
Elmira POW camp
Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War- Excerpts Edition

From Police Sgt. Lonnie Speer's exhaustively researched study published by Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pa. Excerpts focus on NY's POW sites -- Elmira (shown above), Albany, the Tombs, Ludlow St. Jail, and the islands (Rikers, Hart, Bedloe's, Governor's, Ward's, David's, Ft. Lafayette).
AMK annual report
Birth of NYC Board of Correction
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An Excerpts Presentation of
The History of the Office of Sheriff

by Schenectady County Sheriff Harry C. Buffardi
The law enforcement office known today as Sheriff is traced from its Medieval beginnings in Anglo Saxon and Norman England through its transplantation to the American colonies and to the Wild West up to the present era.
An Excerpts Presentation of
Killer Cop by Mark S. Gado
Tombs Inmate Trio Tripped Up Tenderloin's Lieutenant Becker
Three in the Tombs impacted the case of the only policeman in the U.S. convicted and executed for murder: Lt. Charles Becker in 1915.
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Berkshire Farm and Services for Youth Archives

Berkshire Farm youth services began in Canaan in 1886. Its range of child care and juvenile justice services includes placement prevention and placement alternatives.

NYC Correction Dept. operates the City Cemetery on Hart Island
Also see
Recent Tour.
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'Making a Difference for 20 Years: 1979-1999' -- NYC Department of Juvenile Justice
Excerpts from DJJ's 20th Anniversary Commemorative Journal.
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Excerpts Presentation
Of DCJS' Origin of the
NYS Bureau of Identification

by Michael Harling
in HTML format
150 Years in the Forefront: Women's Prison Association & Home
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To NYCHS home page
Biography of
Katharine Bement Davis:
in HTML format
in Downloadable (PDF) format