Detail from Lawes’ edition of “Fairburns Abstract of the New Metropolitan Police Act, Passed June 19th, 1829...”
From the Fall 2014 newsletter
New York Police Commissioner William Bratton has consistently stated that he follows Sir Robert Peel’s nine principles of policing. These ethical standards of policing were set forth in early nineteenth century England and include the idea of community policing, the proper use of force, the protection of citizens, and proper and civilized ways that the police interact with the public. Peel, the “father of modern policing,” was Prime Minister of Great Britain twice and a politician and statesman all of his life. Peel created London’s police force in 1829. The first police were almost immediately termed “Bobbies” or less generously, “Peelers.” The creation of the police force was promulgated in “The Metropolitan Police Act of 1829.” This information is not new to historians of England or of the police. But we have found in the Warden Lewis Lawes of Sing Sing Archives in the Lloyd Sealy Library a unique “grangerized” edition of “Fairburns Abstract of the New Metropolitan Police Act, Passed June 19th, 1829...” This is an extra-illustrated copy of a common pamphlet. The term “grangerize” comes from James Granger (1723-76), whose five-volume Biographical History of England included many blank leaves so purchasers could illustrate the volume to their own liking. The technique was used as early as the 17th century, but the term “grangerized” stuck. Our fascinating copy includes Warden Lawes’s bookplate (with the prison librarian bearing Lawes’s likeness), a manuscript from Peel, an illustration of a “Metropolitan Police Man,”, five steel engravings of Peel, and a colored engraving of a “Bobbie” questioning a young street urchin that he accuses of loitering (left). This outstanding little book illustrates once again the treasures found in the Special Collections Division of the Lloyd Sealy Library.
—Larry E. Sullivan, Chief Librarian