Papers of Lewis E. Lawes

1883 - 1947

Warden of Sing Sing Prison, 1920 - 1941

A world famous penologist, Lawes was best known for his twenty-one year stint as Warden of Sing Sing, and for his often extraordinary ability to keep himself and his viewpoints on crime and punishment in the public eye. An exemplar of the prison reform movement, Lawes was a strong believer in rehabilitation as the function of the penal system, and an outspoken opponent of capital punishment. During his administration rehabilitation programs at Sing Sing ranged far beyond traditional educational and work programs to encompass the care and maintenance of an aviary and a greenhouse, a near professional-level football team, and a Sunday night lecture series that featured eminent personalities from the arts, sports and religion.

Lawes reputation and ideas reached well beyond the correctional community through a long running radio program, numerous books and articles, a Broadway play, and a film adaptation of his best know book, "Twenty Thousand Years at Sing Sing."

In so far as was possible, the collection has been arranged to reflect the order imposed by Lawes himself. The principle Series are:

• I. Personal papers - In the course of his thirty-six year career in New York State correctional institutions and in his post-retirement involvement in prison programs in support of the war effort. Lawes associated and corresponded with a wide range of prominent political and cultural figures including Clarence Darrow, Al Smith, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Gene Tunney, and Harry Houdini. It was his habit to mount much of this correspondence in scrapbooks (boxes 3 and 4). Other correspondence files were kept in more traditional subject-like arrangement, with inevitable overlaps between the files and the scrapbooks.
• II. Photos and honorary certificates
• III. Sing Sing publications - Star of Hope, Vol. I - III, (1899 - 1902); Sing Sing Bulletin Vol. 19, nos. 1-12, (1917-1918); special Lawes birthday edition of Sing Sing News, September 1940.
• IV. "Black Sheep" (Sing Sing football team) - The football team was the star in the firmament of Sing Sing's Sports programs. Games were played both within home grounds and "away". Assorted dignitaries attended and assumed honorific responsibilities at the games. The accompanying pomp and splendor included music by the Sing Sing band and a parade featuring the team mascot, a pony painted to resemble a zebra. The team spawned at least one professional athlete , Alabama Pitts, whose cross-over from the "Black Sheep" to an outside team required overcoming a good deal of local fear and hostility.
• V. Miscellaneous - Includes an inventory of Lawes' book collection, Peter M. Daley materials, and the blueprint for the first electric chair.
• VI. General scrap books - The thousands of newspaper and magazine articles in Lawes' numerous scrap books (photocopied because the originals were crumbling) contain both clipping service items related to Lawes, and material selected by Lawes himself because of his interest in the subject. The arrangement, except for the "strays" in File #63, follows the original: no effort has been made to overcome the general lack of order.
• VII. Artifacts - Film footage, printing plates (portraits and book jacket), carved monogram portion of chair back, autographed baseballs, inscribed loving cups.
• VIII. Miscellaneous - Inscribed trophies, photographs of Clarence Darrow and Alfred E. Smith, letter to Lawes from F.D. Roosevelt, microfilm reels of articles about Lawes and Sing Sing Prison (1926-33, 1930-35, 1932-42).

Supplementary Collection I - 3 Boxes

Materials in this supplement to collection "X101" add significantly to the documentation of Lawes' life and career. Correspondence files, scrapbooks, photo's and artifacts expand on the materials acquired earlier. The Sing Sing administrative files however, strike a totally new note. Communications between the warden's office and prison staff are stylistically and substantively at a far remove from the sentimentalized versions of prison life prepared for popular consumption.

Similarly, the numerous unsuccessful attempts at producing a major post-humous biography illuminate not only divergent family interests but also reflect a social ethos increasingly uncomfortable with images of paternalistic prison wardens and their strayed-sheep charges.

This collection was acquired many years after collection "X101" although internal evidence suggests they were originally a unified collection. The principle series in this supplement are:

• I. Personal Papers
• II. Publications and Presentations
• III. Biographical Material
• IV. Scrap Books
• V. Artifacts

Supplementary Collection II - 1 Box

This collection is comprised of photocopies of two scrapbooks of newspaper and magazine clippings (408 p.), miscellaneous correspondence, and receipts for the National War Fund effort (1942-1945).

For access to the collection, contact Prof. Ellen Belcher, Special Collections Librarian via e-mail at ebelcher@jjay.cuny.edu or by mail at the Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 899 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10019.

Last updated 8/96.