The New York Correction History Society has added a major new presentation to its web site:
www.correctionhistory.org
Searching Sing Sing for My Father,
historian Robert L. Gold's original text of an article printed in edited-down form by
The Westchester Historian
Just three of the many interesting elements in the 9-page web presentation:
a.. Babe Ruth helping a baseball make a 620-foot escape over a 40-foot high Sing Sing wall during an exhibition game with an inmate team.
b.. A professional historian detecting features like his father's in the shadowy face of a player in a prisoners team photo among Warden Lewis E. Lawes' papers in John Jay College of Criminal Justice Lloyd Sealy Library.
c.. His tracking down particulars on the 1924 Bronx prosecution of his dad for robbery, his father having been arrested fleeing the scene of the last in a string of drug store holdups, attempting the getaway in a hired taxi.
The Searching Sing Sing for My Father web presentation, illustrated with more than three dozen images, is accessible by clicking the Babe Ruth-at-bat/Sing Sing Prison bars icon near the top of the home page of the NYCHS site at www.correctionhistory.org
This very readable account of Dr. Gold's late-in-life discovery of and research into his father's secret past reveals the real challenges that even a professional historian encounters when embarked upon unraveling hidden family history.
Dr. Gold has taught history at universities in Illinois, Michigan, Florida and Mexico. He also taught inmates at four prisons in Illinois. His professional career has included service as a museum executive director, an editor of historical journals, and leadership in educational conferences and councils.
His extensive published writings have explored, among other subjects, the histories of Florida and Ecuador. His article, "Babe Ruth at Sing Sing Prison: The Story of the 620 Foot Homerun," is to appear in The National Pastime (a publication of the Society for American Baseball Research) in June, 2004. In the fall, he will deliver a talk at the Ossining Public Library on "Alabama Pitts, Sing Sing's Star Athlete."
Thomas C. McCarthy
general secretary, New York Correction History Society
http://www.correctionhistory.org
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director of historical services
Correction Academy, New York City Department of Correction
66-26 Metropolitan Ave., Middle Village, NY 11379
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(718) 417-2315 voice mail
(718) 417-2326 fax
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