Auburn roots of the NYS fingerprint system

Prison guard

Parke began it

Miskell Monographs
Retired Deputy Superintendent John N. Miskell's monographs:

Preview of History Channel's
Big House: Auburn premiere
Thursday, May 29 at 11 PM EST
Thomas
Mott
Osborne's

Within
Prison
Walls
Link to 278
Auburn
images.
Auburn & Osborne:
An NYCHS Exploration of Their Role in Correction History[old Auburn prison]

[Thomas Mott Osborne statue]
Interesting Auburn images from old postcards, such as above left on this page, are featured on Vintage Views of New York.


Mayor Carnicelli
Excerpts from The Citizen story about the mayor starting civic dialog on the museum potential of Auburn's role in correction history.

Excerpts from the NY Correction History Society letter to The Citizen on NYCHS serving as a resource of information and communication for the Auburn correction history dialog.

Excerpts from the mayor's words of appreciation to NYCHS.


John Miskell's paper
on Why Auburn?
Ten page transcription by NYCHS of the 37- page Why Auburn? The Relationship Between Auburn & the Prison, a paper that John N. Miskell presented to the Cayuga County Historical Society at Cayuga Museum.

A teacher training graduate with State University at Oswego bachelor and masters of science degrees, he served as the Osborne School's education director and as the Programs Deputy Superintendent during 33 years at the prison.


Osborne papers guide
Excerpts from The Osborne Family: An Inventory of Papers in Syracuse University Libraries compiled by John Janitz, published as Number 15 of the Manuscript Inventory Series in 1971.

This NYCHS 14-page presentation -- the full guide runs 112 pages -- seeks to convey a sense of the Osborne papers collection's broad scope and its richness as a source for information on the reform role of Thomas Mott Osborne in U.S. correction history.


Alexis de Tocqueville
Excerpts from On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France by Gustave de Beaumont & Alexis de Tocqueville. Alexis' book Democracy in America is virtually required reading in U.S. colleges.

But his purpose for visiting here in 1831 -- to study American prisons -- is mentioned rarely. This NYCHS 7-page presentation focuses on those parts of their report about Auburn prison and its methods that became the American model.


Bellevue included the NYC Penitentiary.
Before his visiting Auburn, Tocqueville first saw NYC area institutions such as its lunatic asylum and penitentiary: a 1-page excerpts presentation by NYCHS.


Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum.

Other NY Correction History Society web pages with
Auburn prison and/or Thomas Mott Osborne references:

.
Some 50+ other sites on the World Wide Web with
Auburn prison and/or Thomas Mott Osborne material:

.
  • solid square = site cited in an Auburn&Osborne NYCHS presentation page.
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