williamjgaynor

Eugene Foss was Gov of MA from 1911-1914 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Foss William Gaynor was Mayor of New York City from 1910 to 1913. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jay_Gaynor

Is this one of the old telegraph alarms, similar to this one: flickr.com/photos/katysilbs/2664152094/in/set-72157606141...

Actually that one in the photo is much closer to the one I bought in 1980 from an antique store



I believe the 1913 photo was taken by City Hall, and the box shown was brought to that location temporarily and set up for the ceremony/photo op, you'll notice I'm probably right on that connection because the Mayor is standing on the curb, that box is standing in the STREET.

FIRE ALARM TO OPEN 9 NEW FIREHOUSES
New York Times, March 11, 1913

"Unusual ceremonies will mark the opening on Thursday afternoon, March 20, [1913], of the nine new firehouses which are to house ten new companies. Mayor Gaynor will start the companies for their new stations by turning in an alarm from the City Hall, and later in the day he will award the Fire Department medals to the men who have been selected for distinguished service." [more]

There is a LOC photo on Flickr of one of the new Engine Companies from that celebration here:

"Engine 91 - 1st trip"   by Library of Congress


 

You could be right Urban Sculptures, that the alarm box was just brought in for the event. It does make a good photo. Thanks too to Pixel Wrangler for linking to the article describing the event. We'll make some additions to the record the next time we update.

Eugene Foss was Governor of Mass: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Foss William Jay Gaynor was Mayor of New York City (he died Sept 10, 1913 or 5 months after this photo). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jay_Gaynor John Whalen shows up in NYTimes searches as being "very active" in the management of the NYGiants, for example: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C04E7DE1E3AE633A... According to this web site, on April 10, 1913 the New York Giants opened their season playing the Boston Braves at home (losing 8-0) www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYG/1913_sched.shtml The NYTimes has a mournful account of the April 10, 1913 game here: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B0CEFDF1730E2... This mentions Mayor Gaynor throwing out the first pitch, and mentions General Thomas Barry as being in attendance. Gen Barry Major Gen. Thomas Barry, commanding ing the Eastern Division of the United States Army. Who is Captain Hill

Harry Angstrom: Thanks for the additional information. In looking more closely at this image, it appears the last individual on the right is, in fact, Col. John Whalen, rather than Eugene Foss. We are going to change the source data and reload the description in Flickr to match.

I think the correct attribution is, from left to right: Thomas Henry Barry (1855-1919), William Jay Gaynor (1849-1913), possibly Eugene Noble Foss (1858-1939), and John Sibley Whalen (1868-1913). Both Gaynor and Whalen died in 1913. Whalen died on 3 May 1913, 23 days later. Gaynor died on 10, September 1913, 153 days later.