thomasmottosborne

Nice, thanks :)

Nice

From the NY Times: "Thomas Mott Osborne of Auburn, N.Y., retired manufacturer, world traveler, lecturer, writer, and prison reformer, has accepted the offer of John B. Riley, State Superintendent of Prisons, of the post of the Warden of Sing Sing Prison."

Not exactly a nice place to overnight, I would imagine !!

bior I was about to say sounds like someone worthy of a Wikipedia entry, but it looks like someone beat me to it... Thomas Mott Osborne (September 23, 1859 – October 20, 1926) was an American prison administrator, prison reformer, industrialist and New York State political reformer. He was also known as "Tom Brown," a name he gave himself when he spent a week in the Auburn Prison in New York state in 1913. In an assessment of Osborne's life, a New York Times book reviewer wrote: "His career as a penologist was short, but in the interval of the few years he served he succeeded in revolutionizing American prison reform, if not always in fact, then in awakening responsibility.... He was made of the spectacular stuff of martyrs, to many people perhaps ridiculous, but to those whose lives his theories most closely touched, inspiring and often godlike."

Presumably en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mott_Osborne NYT of July 17, 1916 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902E6D9173BE633A... "CONVICTS' CARNIVAL WELCOMES OSBORNE; Prisoners, in Costume and Wild with Joy, Give Pageant for Him at Sing Sing. HUNDREDS OF SPECTATORS Mutual Welfare League Confers Degree of 'Doctor of Humanity' on Returning Warden. CONVICTS' CARNIVAL WELCOMES OSBORNE With a fancy dress parade, followed by solemn exercises by the prisoners of Sing Sing Prison, Thomas Mott Osborne was welcomed back today as Warden, after defeating the attempt to oust him by winning a jury's acquittal on one charge and obtaining a victory in the preliminary proceedings before a court on the other.

Sounds like quite an event. Lots more about Osborne at

Thanks swanq, we'll include Mr. Osborne's full name as well as the event. The Library has a photo of Osborne demonstrating an old form of punishment, the head cage at www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002712538/.

See notes under:

Thanks. We'll add Warden Osborne's full name to the title.