Over the course of our trips, we have gathered many brochures, pamphlets, and booklets from various places around Auburn. As I poured over all of these paper materials, something that caught my eye was the inclusion of “Fun Facts” in various locations. A common theme for this blog is the fact that the Auburn Correctional Facility, while large in size, is almost invisible to the people of Auburn. While both of these materials do mention the prison, they still maintain/contribute to the invisibility of the prison. Both handouts include “fun facts” about the prison, but do not include images of it.
History's Hometown Map and Fun Facts Sheet:
**Retrieved December 2018 from NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center**
Features:
Map with 7 historic locations identified with brief descriptions of each
13 “fun facts about Auburn, New York”
Information about Auburn’s geographical location in New York
Distances to big cities
Airports nearby
Train and bus information
The map and fun facts sheet states “The first electric chair and the first successful electrocution were at Auburn Correctional Facility, the oldest continuously operating maximum-security prison in North America since 1817.” This is the 2nd fun fact on their list. I find it interesting because while they chose to include this fun fact, the map on the back of the handout does not even have the prison on it in any fashion.
As you can see in the photo above, where the prison would be situated on any other map, we find a blank space. I was taken aback by this a bit because the map includes the community college and the hospital, but not the prison. To investigate further, I talked to the woman who was working at the welcome center that day. She said that the center was for telling people about places around the town and county and then kind of pushing people out to go see them and "you can't really go visit the prison". She added that while the prison wasn't explicitly mentioned or seen on the map, that the Cayuga Museum had a permanent exhibit about the prison and that people would be encouraged to visit the museum to learn more. The Cayuga museum is featured on this map as site #2, but its description does not have any mention of the prison exhibit. When I talked about this in class, it was hypothesized that the prison could have been left off the map for security purposes, but I do not feel very sure about this reasoning due to the fact that on other maps we have seen of Auburn, the prison is typically included. An example of this is the actual background of this website, where the prison can be seen as a small black rectangle. While I do not currently believe that I have a real answer behind why the prison was eliminated from this map, I do think that it has something to do with the town choosing to distance itself further from the prison in this new wave of tourism re-branding.
Fun Facts About Cayuga County:
Features:
Brief history about Cayuga County
Different sections of “Fun Facts”
Firsts, The Fruits of Our Labor, History Happened Here, Art & Architecture, Let Us Entertain You, What’s in a Name?, 12 Miles on the Erie Canal, Just for Fun, Notable Forefathers (and mothers!), Lay of the Land
Receive a free Gift if you visit 5 of the sites listed and bring proof to the Cayuga County Office of Tourism
Submit Comments/Quotes/ Testimonials
This booklet includes two "fun facts" about the Auburn Correctional Facility. The first can be found on the second page as the third fact listed under the category "Firsts". It states, "The first electric chair and the first successful electrocution took place at Auburn Correctional Facility. Visit Cayuga Museum's Prison exhibit to learn more" ("first electric chair" is in bold in the brochure). The second fact can be found on the third page under "History Happened Here". It states, "Auburn Correctional Facility was originally constructed in 1816 and is the oldest continuously operating maximum-security prison in North America. The woodworking shop in the prison was run by Gustav Stickley, a leading figure in the American Craftsman movement and founder of what is now called the L. & J.G. Stickley furniture company in Manlius, N.Y.". I find these "fun facts" to be interesting because they are similar in content and prominence to that of the fun fact listed on the History's Hometown map and fun fact sheet. Both blurbs are located early on in the booklet and through their use of "bold", highlight things such as the electric chair, the name of the prison, its longevity, and a furniture company. While these things are included and highlighted, there are still not images pertaining to the prison included in the booklet.
I think this lack of visual presence of the prison in both materials is important and telling about the relationship that the city would like to have with the prison. In both materials, the prison is only referenced through printed text and I may be going out on a limb by stating this, but I think that this is a way for the city to hide the prison from visitors. I believe that in many cases images can be more impactful than text. As you scrolled through this blog, your eye was probably more drawn to the images that I included rather than the words I wrote. Its okay, I'm not offended, sometimes I skim articles just to look at the pictures too. That is why I think that the lack of visual representation of the prison is a sign that whoever made the materials did not want the prison to be at the forefront of any tourist's mind or in the case of the map maker, they didn't want people to really know it existed in the center of the town.
The picking and choosing of what facts would be "fun" about the prison is also an interesting element. Both materials include something about the electric chair. This is interesting to me because almost every person that we have talked to about the prison has brought up this fact without fail. At first I wondered how electrocuting someone to death was "fun" or why people would really want us to know about it so much, but after some thought, I think that it could have something to do with America's interest in death and the death penalty along with Auburn's obsession with historical facts and "firsts". I think these facts also demonstrate how the city is choosing to shape their relationship with the prison now. They want to talk about it as a historical site, a place of "firsts", but do not want to talk about it in terms of its modern presence. People talk of the electric chair or the "beautiful" products that once came out of the prison, but very rarely do they want to talk about what's going on in the prison today. This makes me even more confident to suggest that the city of Auburn is continuing to distance itself from the prison that sits right in the middle of the city.
I think that this could benefit from more research in the future, especially to dive into the reasoning behind the prison not being on the map and the choices behind the "fun facts" included on the sheet.
留言