Endowments; Safety education; Industrial safety; New York (N.Y.); Museum of Safety and Sanitation; American Museum of Safety; American Museum of Safety Devices and Industrial Hygiene; Tolman, William Howe, 1861-; Strong, Josiah, 1847-1916
Format
correspondence
Genre
Business correspondence
Date
[between 1901 and 1919?]
Physical Description
microfilm, 16 mm, b&w
Note (Reel no.)
Reel 78, 83
Note
PDF may contain multiple grant documents.
American Museum of Safety Devices; director William L. Tolman
Inaugurated in 1908 by leading social and religious reformers, the Museum of Safety offered a vision of a progressive institution whose objective was to inform and educate individuals on the latest mechanical and practical principles of safety in orde r to prevent accidents, to conserve life and limb and to ensure the competitiveness of industry... The increasing dangers posed by the modern age were occurring whilst reformers in the city sought a greater degree of involvement in the lives of the residents of New York to improve housing, education and sanitation. Safety was a key feature in this movement as it emphasized personal responsibility to ensure collective well-being. In a diverse city with extremes of poverty and wealth, emphasizing 'safety' could also bring stability and progress to New York. Through a concern for 'risk,' a new 'modern' relationship between individuals, corporations and society was forwarded as the rise in accidents was perceived by reformers as evidence of a break in the social contract within the metropolis. The preacher Josiah Strong (1847–1916) was one of the most prominent voices in this campaign... For commerce, entertainment, education or enlightenment, the exhibition served as an ideal form through which American society could be reformed, reimagined or reasserted with the developments of nineteenth-century society....On this basis, the use of expositions and fairs had been forwarded by Strong as a means through which the league could shape society. To develop this work, Strong appointed the reformer and social scientist William Tolman (1861–1958) director in 1898. Through donations from individuals and corporations, Tolman assembled an exhibition of lantern slides on the condition of cities across the United States and specifically New York. This exhibition was first unveiled to the city's political, industrial and religious elite during March 1900 in the Manhattan home of the socialite and philanthropist Helen Miller Gould Shephard (1868–1938). 39 The success of this endeavour led to the commission by the United States government to transfer the display to the Exposition universelle in Paris from April 1900... Tolman began promoting the need for the museum by highlighting the problems facing society in the modern era and the need for 'safety' as a concern to ameliorate the potential for dissent and disintegration. This work was principally undertaken within the field of industry and the organization gained prominence with their International Exposition of Safety Devices and Industrial Hygiene in New York during January and February 1907. The exhibition was housed within the American Museum of Natural History with a variety of safety devices and information from over three hundred global companies and industries contained within display cases and tableaus... ...The exposition was successful, providing the impetus for the creation of the American Museum of Safety Devices and Industrial Hygiene in April 1907...With the trappings of an established and venerable institution, the museum was based near Times Square on 239 W. Thirty-Ninth Street, renting the third floor from the McGraw Realty Company. In these new surroundings, a smaller second Exposition of Safety Devices was held between May and June 1908... ...A similar initiative of using exhibitions to inform society on issues of safety and well-being was also being pioneered with the installation in 1909 of a public-health department within the American Museum of Natural History. In this context, Tolman and the vice presidents renamed the institution the 'Museum of Safety and Sanitation' and relocated in early 1910 to 29 W. Thirty-Ninth Street, where it was housed within the United Engineering Societies’ Building. This structure, built through a donation by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), was designed to bring together the offices and interests of manufacturing and engineering societies in the city. These premises were well appointed; libraries, lecture rooms, galleries and private chambers were provided to organizations to further their aims and objectives. The Carnegie Corporation also began financially supporting the museum with an annual sum of $5,000 being paid between 1911 and 1919. This patronage enabled the museum to develop as new expositions were held on safety devices, regular meetings and talks were convened, and guest lecturers from across the world were hosted, whilst pamphlets and booklets were printed and distributed from the museum's new headquarters. In 1909, the bulletin Safety was launched by the museum to disseminate the latest information on the safety agenda across the United States. To indicate this new status, the museum's board was reformed from prominent members of the city's industrial, economic and political classes, whilst the institution developed subdepartments concerned with the protection of life in transportation, mining, textiles, building trades and the chemical and agricultural industries. With its financial and political backing from the Carnegie Corporation, the stress on social stability and individual responsibility were paramount in exhibitions and leaflets as the museum's concern for 'social engineering' rather than 'social economy' was reflected in another name change in late 1910: the American Museum of Safety... ...By the summer of 1918, the museum's board sought to end the organization's problems by applying to occupy the Arsenal Building on Fifth Avenue and Sixty-Fourth Street in Central Park as their permanent home...However, the plans were criticized in the city's press as an 'invasion' of Central Park; the museum appeared not to represent the qualities sought to warrant a home in such an exalted position. 119 The acquisition of support and the drawing up of a lease by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment in the summer of 1918 brought further assessment of the museum's actual role and value within the city. This appraisal saw the ending of the tenure of Arthur H. Young as director in July 1918 and a successful application by the museum's board members to rename the museum the Safety Institute of America in November 1918...In their new guise, the Safety Institute continued to hold lectures and seminars in early 1919 as part of their public remit. However, the problems in securing the museum's permanent home meant that these lectures were held in the offices of the Metropolitan Life Building. The institute had been forced to vacate the property at 14–18 W. Twenty-Ninth Street in April 1919 in the expectation that it would take up residency at the Central Park Arsenal. However, despite a favourable court decision in July 1919, on appeal in June 1920 the decision of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment was rejected and the institute was refused permission to occupy the Arsenal...The institute was rendered homeless with this decision and was forced to rent offices at 261 Madison Avenue and disperse the collections built up as a museum because of the absence of storage. The death of Carnegie in 1919 had also brought a reduction in income as the Carnegie Corporation began to focus upon scientific programmes, which the new institute was not regarded as fulfilling. The institute was eventually incorporated into the wider role of the National Safety Council, as the operation of safety initiatives within the city was undertaken as a joint initiative... ...Whilst the institute formally reverted its name back to the American Museum of Safety in 1923, the organization had ceased to operate as a functional service and was reduced to a small collection of photographs and a library housed in an office on 60 E. Forty-Second Street by 1926..." [SOURCE: Wilson, Ross. "The Museum of Safety: Responsibility, Awareness and Modernity in New York, 1908–1923." Journal of American Studies, vol. 51, no. 3, 21 Sep. 2016, pp. 915-938. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002187581600102X. Accessed 2 Oct. 2018.]