Mr. Kirkpatrick letter
- Title:
- Mr. Kirkpatrick letter
- Collection:
- 19th Century Prison Reform Collection
- Date:
- 1807-1868
- ID Number:
- RMM01157_B01_F19_031_01
- Collection Number:
- 1157
- File Name:
- RMM01157_B01_F19_031_01.jpg
- Transcription:
- "The forgoing are all the remarks which we think necessary to make--permit us to say that it is very important to have your decision at as early a day as may suit your convenience.
We are very Respectfully yours,
S. Ford
Mr. Kirkpatrick - Work Type:
- documents
- Description:
- This "Mr. Kirkpatrick" may refer to Thomas Kirkpatrick, a politician from the State of New York. In 1843 he was elected alderman of Albany's Tenth Ward and Overseer of the Poor. He was then elected Inspector of State Prisons from 1854 to 1856, followed by warden of Auburn Prison from 1860 to 1864. In 1871, he was elected State Prison Inspector again, this time on the Republican instead of the Whig ticket. He was in office until 1874 when he was defeated for re-election. Recall that before 1846, the inspectors were appointed by the state Legislature for each prison. After a constitutional amendment, the Inspector of State Prisons became an elective and state-wide position. After much conflict between this board and the Prison Association of New York, the amendment was reversed in 1876. Kirkpatrick's easy fluctuation between inspector and warden supports the allegations of nepotism documented by the Prison Association elsewhere in this exhibit.
- Cite As:
- Enos Thompson Throop. Papers, #1157. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- Enos Thompson Throop Papers
- Box:
- 1
- Folder:
- 19
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The content in the 19th Century Prison Reform Collection is believed to be in the public domain by virtue of its age, and is presented by Cornell University Library under the Guidelines for Using Text, Images, Audio, and Video from Cornell University Library Collections [http://hdl.handle.net/1813.001/CULCopyright]. This collection was digitized by Cornell University Library in 2017 from print materials held in the Rare and Manuscript Collections, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Katherine Thorsteinson. For more information about these volumes, please contact the Rare and Manuscript Collections at rareref@cornell.edu. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.