A. Introduction
[1] Until 2020, the only statues in the parks and public squares of New York City honoring historical women were of these five figures: Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, and Golda Meir. Allison Meier, “The Only Five Public Statues of Historic Women in NYC,” July 31, 2015, accessible at https://hyperallergic.com/226186/the-only-five-public-statues-of-historic-women-in-nyc/. In August 2020, on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, a statue was erected in Central Park honoring the suffragists Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, the first statue of historical women in the park. Nora McGreevy, “Why the First Monument of Real Women in Central Park Matters – and Why It’s Controversial” (Aug. 26, 2020), accessible at www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/monument-controversy-women-pioneer-central-park-180975662/. See also Katie Honan, “Statue of Italian-American Saint Mother Cabrini Unveiled,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 13, 2020, p. A10A (statue unveiled in Battery Park).
B. The Life and Work of Rebecca Salome Foster
[2] Rev. John B. Devins, “The Angel of the Tombs,” The Missionary Review of the World 419 (June 1902).
[3] The location of the family in these years is shown in Schedule I of several census reports that list inhabitants by county and date.
[4] Obituary of Dr. Joel Foster, The Sun, June 30, 1884, p. 1.
[5] During that siege, prior to the arrival of his regiment, Foster had occasion to deal with regiments of Black troops during assaults by them on the Confederate works. In January 1864, he wrote a letter to another officer praising the bravery and dedication of those soldiers that he had witnessed at this time. George Washington Williams, A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 pp. 323-24 (Harper & Bros. 1888); George Washington Williams, History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880, Vol. II, pp. 426-27 (G.P. Putnam 1883).
[6] “The Civil War in the East: 175th New York Infantry Regiment,” at civilwarintheeast.com/us-regiments-batteries/new-york-infantry/175th-new-york/.
[7] An Army document called a “Post Return” for the month of February 1865 shows commissioned officers present and absent. It lists Foster as having been detached from the 175th New York pursuant to order in January 1864 and indicates by abbreviations that he had been assigned to the War Department, Judge Advocate General’s Office, Washington, D.C.
[8] United States Army, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, The Army Lawyer: A History of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, 1775-1975 (1975), accessible at www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/lawyer.pdf.
[9] Doubleday served under the commander, Major Robert Anderson, at Fort Sumter, and fired the first cannon shot in defense of the fort. He was at a later time determined to have been the founder of the game of baseball while attending West Point, although some historians have since questioned that finding. “Abner Doubleday,” at www.nps.gov/abner-doubleday.htm. Col. Foster is shown in a photograph with the members of the commission, but one cannot tell from it whether Foster was a member of the tribunal or, as is perhaps more likely, the prosecutor. There is at least one photograph that was taken of the military commission that presided over the trial of the Lincoln conspirators in which the lead prosecutor and a colonel who was acting as the assistant prosecutor in that case (named below) were included with the members of the tribunal.
[10] William C. Edwards & Edward Steers Jr. (eds.), The Lincoln Assassination – The Evidence pp. xxii-xxiii (Univ. Ill. Press 2009).
[11] For example, the Headquarters Provost Marshal General of the Defences South of Potomac in Alexandria, Virginia sent Foster a message 12 days after the assassination of Mr. Lincoln reporting that a certain Parker, who was a proprietor of a theater there in which Mr. Ford of Washington had an interest, was in his custody and asking whether Colonel Foster wished to have him. Message of Capt. Winship to John A. Foster, April 26, 1865, Headquarters Provost Marshal General, Defences South of Potomac, Alexandria, Va.
[12] William C. Edwards & Edward Steers Jr., supra note 10, at pp. xxii-xxiii.
[13] Reports by Col. Foster and his lists of evidence provided can be found in William C. Edwards & Edward Steers Jr., supra note 10, at pp. 532-558, reproducing the content of the original documents, which are located in Bureau of Military Justice files in the National Archives.
[14] At various times after the war, Burnett practiced law in New York City, where perhaps he had occasion to encounter General Foster, the Bar in those days being much smaller than it is today. Burnett was appointed by President McKinley as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and was reappointed by President Roosevelt, serving eight years in the position. He was succeeded by Henry L. Stimson.
[15] “The Civil War in the East,” supra note 6; “175th Infantry Regiment,” New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center, dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/175thInf/175thInfMain.htm#photos.
[16] “Local Politics,” New York Times, Sept. 25, 1866, p. 8; “Miscellaneous Local Politics,” New York Times, Nov. 4, 1870, p. 5; “Plain Facts About the ‘Troubles,’” New York Times, Oct. 7, 1871, p. 6; “New York City,” New York Daily Herald, Feb. 20, 1875, p. 10 (all mentioning John A. Foster).
[17] “An Office Chair His Deathbed,” The Sun, Feb. 12, 1890, p. 2; “John A. Foster Dead,” The New York Times, Feb. 12, 1890, p. 8.
[18] Marie Louise married Francis S. Colt on Jan. 5, 1892. New York Times, Jan. 6, 1892, p. 2; The Evening Telegram, Jan. 5, 1892, p. 5. Jeanette married William C. Bowers on Jan. 18, 1893. New-York Daily Tribune, Jan. 19, 1893, p. 7.
[19] “The Willing Aid Society,” New York Herald, Dec. 10, 1878, p. 8.
[21] See the sources cited in note 18.
[22] Charles H. Brent, A Master Builder: Being the Life and Letters of Henry Yates Satterlee, First Bishop of Washington 85 (Longmans, Green & Co. New York 1916).
[23] An article reported that Mrs. Foster had presented the main booth at a charitable event, which was entitled “In Memoriam” in memory of her son. “The Willing Aid Society,” New York Herald, Dec. 10, 1878, p. 8.
[24] Charles H. Brent, supra note 22, at 86.
[26] “‘Tombs Angel’ Talks to Men,” New York Times, April 1, 1901, p. 6.
[28] “An Office Chair,” supra note 17.
[29] “John A. Foster,” supra note 17.
[30] See sources cited in note 17.
[31] “An Office Chair,” supra note 17.
[32] “John A. Foster,” supra note 17.
[33] The National Archives contain records of pensions awarded Union soldiers. The Foster record is Application No. 445010, filed September 1890.
[34] U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990 (1996), Part II, “Population of the United States and Each State: 1790-1990,” p. 4, accessible at www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/PopulationofStatesandCountiesoftheUnitedStates1790-1990.pdf.
[35] Id., Part III, “Population of Counties, Earliest Census to 1990 – New York,” at p. 113. New York City in 1800 was coterminous with New York County and had substantially the same area as present-day New York County. Id. at p. 114, n. 12.
[37] Population of the United States in 1860; Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census (Govt. Printing Office 1864), “Recapitulation, Nativity of the Population of the City of New York, New York,” p. 609, accessible at www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1860/population/1860a-46.pdf?#.
[38] U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, supra note 34 at p. 112.
[39] U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, 1900 Census: Volume 1, Population, Part 1 (1901), Table 34, “Foreign Born Population, Distributed According to Country of Birth, By Counties, 1900,” at p. 772, accessible at www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1900/volume-1/volume-1-p13.pdf. New York County was larger in 1900 than it is today; certain areas were separated in 1912 and became Bronx County. In 1900, the population of the present-day area of New York County was 1,850,093. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, supra note 34, Part III, “Population of Counties, Earliest Census to 1990 – New York,” at p. 114, n. 12.
[40] “Seneca Falls Convention,” History.com (Nov. 20, 2019), http://www.history.com/topics/womens-rights/seneca-falls-convention.
[41] Erin M. Masson, The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, 1874-1898: Combatting Domestic Violence, 3 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 163 (1997). Although the Union began with promotion of temperance, its concern spread to other social issues as well, such as domestic violence, prostitution, and suffrage for women.
[42] Ferki Ferati, “The Rise and Decline of the Chautauqua Movement and Its Lessons for 21st Century Civic Adult Education” (2017) (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh School of Education), http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/32427/1/Ferki%20ETD%20dissertation%20SD%20July%2027%20%281%29%208.21.17.pdf.
[43] Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, Statistics of Women at Work, “General Statistics,” p. 9 (1907) (based on data from the 12th Census, 1900), accessible at www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1900/women-at-work/women-at-work-p2.pdf.
[45] A report in 1899 seeking donations for Mrs. Foster’s work recited that she had by then been engaged in the work for 15 years. The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vol. XI, No. 4, p. 55 (Feb. 1899).
[46] “‘Tombs Angel’ Talks to Men,” New York Times, April 1, 1901, p. 6; “Helping the Prisoner,” New-York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1901, p. 5; “Mrs. Foster’s First Case,” New-York Daily Tribune, March 17, 1902, p. 5.
[47] John Josiah Munro, The New York Tombs — Inside and Out 250 (Brooklyn 1909).
[48] Arthur Henry, “The Tombs Angel,” The Outlook 164 (Sept. 20, 1902). Among other things, Judge Jerome, while District Attorney, personally prosecuted Harry Thaw for the murder of Stanford White. National Cyclopedia of American Biography pp. 234-35 (Supp. I) (New York: James T. White & Co. 1910).
[49] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 164.
[51] Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at 420.
[52] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[53] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 165.
[54] The Legal Aid Society, “History” for 1876 and 1896, at www.legalaidnyc.org. The Society began as the German Legal Aid Society. It changed its name to its present name in 1896.
[55] See C. Lindner & M. Savarese, “The Evolution of Probation: The Historical Contributions of the Volunteer,” Federal Probation, Vol. 48, No. 2 (June 1984) (citing the work of Mrs. Foster).
[56] Letter of Sarah Renee Martin to the Editor, The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vol. X, No. 8, p. 117 (June 1898).
[57] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[58] 59th Annual Report of the Prison Association of New York for the Year 1903 90-91 (1904).
[59] “Befriends the Women Prisoners: Mrs. Foster and Her Work in the City Police Courts,” The Sun, Dec. 11, 1891, p. 3.
[60] “Society Girls Watch Justice and Mercy in a New York Court,” The World, Feb. 5, 1898, p. 5.
[61] “Will Lead Better Lives,” The Evening World, Sept. 25, 1894, p. 6.
[62] “Clara Marks in a Reformatory,” The Sun, Sept. 25, 1900, p. 7.
[63] “’Tombs Angel’ Overcome,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1901, p. 16.
[64] “Helping the Prisoner,” New-York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1901, p. 5 (summarizing an address by Mrs. Foster).
[65] “Befriends the Women Prisoners: Mrs. Foster and Her Work in the City Police Courts,” The Sun, Dec. 11, 1891, p. 3. See also “Work of the Tombs School,” New York Times, Feb. 11, 1899, p. 10 (Mrs. Foster took part in a public discussion and described her work).
[66] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[67] “Helping the Prisoner,” New-York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1901, p. 5.
[68] Munro, supra note 47, at 249.
[69] “Befriends the Women Prisoners: Mrs. Foster and Her Work in the City Police Courts,” The Sun, Dec. 11, 1891, p. 3.
[71] John Josiah Munro, supra note 47, at 252.
[72] “Clothing for the Poor,” New-York Daily Tribune, Nov. 27, 1900, p. 7 (Mrs. Foster spoke of her work before the Needlework Guild, which had donated clothing to her efforts).
[73] The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vol. XIV, No. 5 (March 1902), p. 73.
[74] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at p. 165.
[75] “The Angels of the Tombs,” The Sun, Jan. 26, 1896, p. 31.
[76] Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at 419.
[78] Letter of Sarah Renee Martin, supra note 56, at 116.
[79] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8 (quoting Justice E.B. Hinsdale).
[81] “Befriends the Women Prisoners: Mrs. Foster and Her Work in the City Police Courts,” The Sun, Dec. 11, 1891, p. 3.
[82] Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at 420. Another reporter told an inquiring colleague that “I wouldn’t say much about her in the paper. She wouldn’t like it.” Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 164.
[83] Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at 420.
[84] “Mrs. Foster’s Memorial – Tablet to be Unveiled at City Club,” New York Daily Tribune, Dec. 24, 1903, p. 5. See also Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at 420.
[85] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 166. Located adjacent to Calvary Church was the Church Missions Building. This edifice was opened in 1894, during the period of Mrs. Foster’s activity. The building, which still stands today, was the headquarters of the mission work of the Episcopal Church. The area nearby it was informally referred to as “charities row” because of the many charitable organizations located there.
[88] Charles H. Brent, supra note 22, at 86, 89.
[89] John Josiah Munro, supra note 47, at 249.
[90] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 164.
[91] “A Tribute to Mrs. Foster’s Memory,” Letter to the Editor of Dr. E.W. Hoeber, New York Times, March 9, 1902, p. 14.
[92] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 166.
[93] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[94] “Befriends the Women Prisoners: Mrs. Foster and Her Work in the City Police Courts,” The Sun, Dec. 11, 1891, p. 3.
[96] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at pp. 165-66.
[99] “The Angels of the Tombs,” The Sun, Jan. 26, 1896, p. 31.
[100] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 166.
[101] “The Angels of the Tombs,” The Sun, Jan. 26, 1896, p. 31. See also “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel’,” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8 (noting her regular attire).
[102] “One Day’s Work,” in The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vol. XIV, No. 1, pp. 38-39 (Nov. 1901). During the time when Mrs. Foster was working, the term “cadet” as used in the quotation in the text referred to a pimp or a procurer who kept a supply of women for immoral purposes through entrapment, threats, fraud, etc. Emma Goldman, “The Traffic in Women,” 13 Hastings Women’s L.J. 9, 9-10 n. 3 (2002), originally published in Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays 177 (1910); Scott Marques, “A History of Prostitution in New York City from the American Revolution to the Bad Old Days of the 1970s and 1980s” (Aug. 30, 2019), accessible at www.archives.nyc/blog/2019/8/29/a-history-of-prostitution-in-new-york-city-from-the-american-revolution-to-the-bad-old-days-of-the-1970-and-1980s (citing a report of the “Committee of Fourteen” formed in the early 1900’s to combat prostitution in the City).
[103] The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vo. IX, No. 2, p. 22 (Dec. 1896).
[106] The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vol. XI, No. 4, p. 55 (Feb. 1899); “Helping the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New York Times, Jan. 11, 1899, p. 9.
[107] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 165.
[108] Multiple issues of The Calvary Evangel cited in these notes reflect this. In one of these (cited in note 106), we find a former Assistant District Attorney speaking at a meeting about Mrs. Foster’s work and urging that funds be donated to support it. (As noted elsewhere in this article, District Attorneys and their staff members viewed Mrs. Foster’s work with considerable favor.) The goal at that time was to raise $ 2,000 annually to assist that work. The ADA stated that before Mrs. Foster began her work, the People were often compelled to seek to send girls to prison upon their conviction of a first offense, but “[n]ow this good woman takes them into her care.”
[109] Charles H. Brent, supra note 22, at 89; “To Help the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, Jan. 21, 1901, p. 4 (reporting that the Friends were seeking funds to help Mrs. Foster in her work).
[110] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[111] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p 8.
[112] “Little Stories of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New York Times, March 2, 1902, p. 26.
[113] E.g., “Christmas Sale in Pelham Hall,” New York Times, Dec. 19, 1895, p. 9 (a Christmas sale and entertainment to benefit the Pelham Hall Shelter); “For the ‘Tombs Angel,’” The World, March 29, 1899, p. 6 (a subscription dance at Delmonico’s to aid Mrs. Foster; during Lent the Helping Hand Club met to sew “for the prisoners and the poor under Mrs. Foster’s care”); “Clothing for the Poor,” New-York Daily Tribune, Nov. 27, 1900, p. 7 (meeting of the Needlework Guild of America at which Mrs. Foster spoke); “Mrs. Foster’s Prison Work,” New York Times, Feb. 5, 1899, p. 4; “Helping the Prisoner,” New-York Daily Tribune, April 26, 1901, p. 5.
[114] “Helping the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New York Times, Jan. 11, 1899, p. 9.
[115] The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vol. XIII, No. 3, p. 44 (January 1901).
[116] Report by Mrs. Foster at a meeting of the Archdeaconry Committee of Calvary Church, Nov. 4, 1896, printed in The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vo. 9, No. 2, p. 21-22 (Dec. 1896).
[118] Seabury was an energetic opponent of Tammany Hall. He became a Justice of the Supreme Court, New York County, and, with the support of the Progressive Party, won election to the New York State Court of Appeals, where he served from 1914 to 1916. In a previous joint campaign for the court, he ran as a Progressive candidate along with Learned Hand. Seabury resigned from the Court to run for Governor of New York in 1916, but was unsuccessful at the polls. He led several significant investigations into corruption in New York City government in the 1930’s, one result of which was the resignation of Mayor Jimmy Walker. Seabury was a major supporter of Fiorello LaGuardia in his campaign for Mayor (the new Mayor was sworn in in Seabury’s home). For more on Seabury’s life, see the biography posted at the site of the Historical Society of the New York State Courts. https://history.nycourts.gov/biography/samuel-seabury.
[119] Herbert Mitgang, The Man Who Rode the Tiger — The Life of Judge Samuel Seabury and the Story of the Greatest Investigation of City Corruption in this Century 36 (Viking 1970).
[122] Report by Mrs. Foster, supra note 116, at 22. Not every dealing with members of the Bar proved fruitful, however. Mrs. Foster once said that one of the hardest things she had to contend with was “the work of the so-called ‘shyster’ lawyers.” On one occasion when she had prevented one such attorney from fleecing a poor German girl who had been in the city only four days, the lawyer shook his fist in Mrs. Foster’s face and threatened to “wipe up the floor” with her. “Mrs. Foster’s Prison Work,” New York Times, Feb. 5, 1899, p. 4.
[123] Barbella was called by other names in the press and elsewhere. On appeal before the Court of Appeals, she was referred to as Marie Barberi (People v. Barberi, 149 N.Y. 256 (1896)), but her mother told a reporter that her real name was Maria Barbella. “Maria Barbella To Die,” New York Times, July 19, 1895, p. 2. The story of Maria Barbella is told in Idanna Pucci, The Trials of Maria Barbella (Four Walls 1996). The book recounts Mrs. Foster’s assistance to Barbella. See also Joanna Molloy, Maria Barbella and Her Date with the Electric Chair, Chicago Tribune, March 7, 1996.
[124] People v. Barberi, 149 N.Y. at 262-66.
[125] “Maria Barbella To Die,” New York Times, July 19, 1895, p. 2; “Maria Barberi Doomed to Die,” The Evening World, July 18, 1895, p. 1; “Maria Barberi’s Doom,” The Sun, July 19, 1895, p.1.
[126] “Maria Barberi Doomed to Die,” The Evening World, July 18, 1895, p. 1.
[127] Chaplain Munro describes Mrs. Foster’s actions on behalf of Barbella. John Josiah Munro, supra note 47, at 251. This incident is reported as well in Idanna Pucci, supra note 123, at 117-21, and by Mrs. Foster herself in “Tombs Angel Tells of Her Work,” The Sun, April 1, 1901, p. 2. See also “Maria Barberi’s Doom,” The Sun, July 19, 1895, p.1; “Maria’s Life in Sing Sing,” The Sun, July 21, 1895, p. 18.
[128] The countess was Clara Slocomb di Brazzà Savorgnan. After reading about the case in an Italian newspaper, Countess di Brazzà traveled to New York from Italy to assist Barbella. Her presence at the sentencing was noted in “Maria Barbella To Die,” New York Times, July 19, 1895, p. 2. The book cited in note 123, which was written by her great granddaughter and was based in good part on a memoir by Count di Brazzà, recounts in detail the extensive efforts of the Countess on Barbella’s behalf.
[129] Idanna Pucci, supra note 123, at 92-97, 134-39.
[132] “Maria Barbella’s Second Trial,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 1896, p. 3 (reporting the commencement of the re-trial the day before).
[133] Idanna Pucci, supra note 123, at 219.
[134] “Marie Barberi Acquitted,” New York Times, Dec. 11, 1896, p. 9.
[135] “In Defence of Her Life,” The Sun, March 16, 1894, p. 3.
[136] “Turmoil in a Court Room,” The Evening World, Feb. 16, 1895, p. 1.
[137] John Josiah Munro, supra note 47, at 253.
[138] “Florence Burns in Court,” New York Times, Feb. 19, 1902, p. 2. Burns was eventually released, although she remained under a cloud of suspicion. For more on the case, see Virginia McConnell, The Belle of Bedford Avenue: The Sensational Brooks-Burns Murder in Turn-of-the-Century New York (2019).
[140] Letter of Sarah Renee Martin, supra note 56, at 116.
[141] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[142] Arthur Henry, supra note 48, at 166-67 (quoting the sexton of Calvary Church).
[143] “Tombs Angel Tells of Her Work,” The Sun, April 1, 1901, p. 2.
[146] “Lizzie Hoffman Has Gone Mad,” The Sun, Nov. 22, 1897, p. 3.
[147] “News of the Courts In Brief,” New York Times, June 12, 1895, p. 14.
[148] “Merciful to a Dying Woman,” The Sun, May 13, 1898, p. 7.
[149] “Glad Now That She Failed,” The Sun, Jan. 31, 1891, p. 5.
[150] “Baumgart’s Unhappy Life,” The Evening World, Aug. 24, 1894, p. 2.
[151] “She Was Ticketed,” The Evening World, Aug. 19, 1895, p. 2; “Prayed in Washington Square,” The Sun, Aug. 20, 1985, p. 7.
[152] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[153] “Helping the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New York Times, Jan. 11, 1899, p. 9.
[154] “Pelham Hall Shelter,” at Historic Pelham, by Blake A. Bell, accessible at http://historicpelham. blogspot.com/2017/09/pelham-hall-shelter-for-erring-girls.html, p. 2, quoting from Charity Organization Society of the City of New York, New York Charities Directory (1897). See also the newspaper article set out in this web post (“Good is Their Aim,” New York Letter, The Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, Ill.), April 11, 1896, p. 4, cols. 4-5), which discusses the work of Mrs. Foster.
[155] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8. Still operating today is the Bowery Mission, which was inspired by the McAuley Mission, 316 Water Street, founded in 1872. www.bowery.org.
[156] “Tombs Angel Tells of Her Work,” The Sun, April 1, 1901, p. 2.
[157] “’Tombs Angel’ Talks to Men,” New York Times, April 1, 1901, p. 6.
[158] The settlement house movement began in England and the United States in the 1880’s. The first institution of this kind was Toynbee Hall in London, opened in 1884. The movement promoted social reform and improvement through the interaction of different social classes, with the focus in the United States on the alleviation of wretched living conditions in city slums. “Settlement houses” were established by a variety of groups, religious and secular, in poor urban areas heavily populated by immigrants. Volunteer middle-class workers resided in these houses as friends and neighbors (hence the term “settlement’) and provided information, skills and resources to the poor residents of the area to give them a foundation by which they could overcome and escape the poverty of the neighborhood and the limitations such poverty imposed on their lives. Well-known figures in the movement included Jane Addams, the founder of Hull House in Chicago, Lillian Wald, founder of the Henry Street Settlement in New York City, Florence Kelley, and Frances Perkins. Margaret E. Berry, The Settlement Movement 1886-1986 – One Hundred Years on Urban Frontiers (1986), accessible at https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/settlement-houses/settlement-movement-1886-1986.
[159] “Sailed Up North River,” New York Times, Aug. 2, 1890, p. 3.
[160] “Tablet to Mrs. Foster’s Memory,” New York Daily Tribune, Nov. 19, 1902, p. 6. See also Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at 419.
[161] “Sailed Up North River,” New York Times, Aug. 2, 1890, p. 3.
[163] New York City Department of Correction Historical Society, A Tale of the Tombs, p. 1, accessible at www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nycdoc/html/histry3a.html. The Court of Special Sessions and the Court of General Sessions are mentioned at various points in the text. The former tried misdemeanor cases and the latter tried felonies. See https://history.nycourts.gov/court/court-general-sessions; Ch. 697 of the Laws of the State of New York (1962).
[164] “Collect Pond Park,” accessible at www.nycgovparks.org/parks/collect-pond-park/history.
[165] A Tale of the Tombs, supra note 163, at p. 1; Robert Pigott, Esq., From Pond to Park: The History of the Collect Pond Site, Dec. 10, 2015, accessible at www.gothamcenter.org/blog/from-pond-to-park-the-history-of-the-collect-pond-site. The draining of the pond required that a 40-foot-wide canal be created. This became Canal Street. “Collect Pond Park,” supra note 164.
[166] A Tale of the Tombs, supra note 163, at p. 1.
[167] History of the Department of Correction of the City of New York, at p. 3, excerpt from the Department’s Annual Report (1946), accessible at www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/1946rpt/1946rpt.html.
[168] A Tale of the Tombs, supra, note 163, at p. 2.
[169] Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at 418.
[170] American Notes for General Circulation Ch. VI (1842), in Collected Works (Scribner’s 1926), p. 287.
[173] Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (1853).
[174] Report of a Committee of the Prison Association Appointed to Inspect the Penal Institutions of New York City, in Fifty-First Annual Report of the Prison Association of New York for the Year 1895 at p. 71 (transmitted to the Legislature April 1896).
[187] A Tale of the Tombs, supra note 163, at p. 4. The original Tombs was a replacement for the colonial-era Bridewell Prison, which was located on the site of today’s City Hall Park and was demolished in 1838. The second Tombs was in operation from 1902 to 1941. The third iteration of the Tombs was the Manhattan House of Detention, which functioned from 1941 to 1974 on Centre Street across from the site of the original Tombs. Due to conditions in the prison and overcrowding, a Federal lawsuit was brought by the Legal Aid Society on behalf of pre-trial detainees. The prison was closed in 1974. The current Tombs is the Manhattan Detention Complex, which was opened in 1983. The City indicated an intention recently to close the Complex. There has also been considerable controversy in recent years surrounding conditions in and operations at the facilities at Rikers Island. Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed closing Rikers within a few years.
[188] Tyler Anbinder, Five Points 1 (Free Press 2001) (footnote omitted). In 1855-67, the Five Points intersection was formed by streets then called Park, Worth, and Baxter Streets. The intersecting streets had different names in earlier times. Maryland Mapping & Graphics Inc., Map of the Five Points Neighborhood, 1855-67, accessible at https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/832.
[189] American Notes, Ch. VI, supra note 170, at pp. 293-95.
[190] One of Riis’s photographs shows “Murderers’ Row” inside the Tombs in 1890 (https://nygeschichte.blogspot. com/2014_06_01_archive.html), when Mrs. Foster was working there. One can see in this photo the layout of the prison described by the committee of the Prison Association.
[191] This is noted in the scrapbook assembled by Mrs. Foster’s sister Lila that we describe hereafter.
[192] “Her Life a Sacrifice,” The Sun (Baltimore, Md.), Feb. 26, 1902, p. 8 (special dispatch). See also “Seventeen Dead in Hotel Horror,” N.Y. Times, Feb. 23, 1902. “The last person who saw her alive says she lost her life trying to get back through the flames to a sick woman who was too ill to walk.” Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at p. 420. A similar report appeared in “Mrs. Foster’s Memorial,” New-York Daily Tribune, Dec. 24, 1903, p. 5. This was as well the understanding of her fate that was held at Calvary Church. Samuel H. Shoemaker, Calvary Church Yesterday and Today — A Centennial History 178-79 (F.H. Revell Co. 1936).
[193] “Tributes to Mrs. Foster,” New York Times, Feb. 24, 1902, p. 9.
[194] “The Tombs Angel’s Fate,” New York Times, Feb. 23, 1902, p. 2.
[195] “Weep Over Mrs. Foster’s Death,” New-York Daily Tribune, Feb. 24, 1902 p. 5.
[196] “Funeral of Mrs. Foster,” New-York Daily Tribune, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 9. Mrs. Foster’s daughter, Jeanette Foster Bowers, lived in Cooperstown, New York and in Florida. She helped found and was the president of the Hispanic Institute of Florida, an organization formed in 1933 to promote good will between North and South America through Hispanic studies and culture. As part of this work, she assembled a library of books, mostly in Spanish, which were made available to libraries in Florida. She received a Decoration of Honor from Rollins College in 1942. She died in 1958. She had two children, Stewart W. Bowers and Joel Foster Bowers. Joel Foster was the Publisher and General Manager of the New York Law Journal. Mrs. Foster’s other daughter, Marie Louise, lived in Manhattan with her husband, Francis S. Colt.
[197] The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vol. XIV, No. 5 (March 1902), p. 74.
[198] “Funeral of ‘Tombs Angel,’” New York Times, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 16.
[199] “The Burial of the ‘Angel of the Tombs,’” The Standard Union (Brooklyn), Feb. 25, 1902, p. 12.
[200] “Funeral of ‘Tombs Angel,’” New York Times, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 16.
[202] “At the Tombs Angel’s Bier,” The Sun, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 11.
[203] “Funeral of Mrs. Foster,” New-York Daily Tribune, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 9.
[204] “Her Life a Sacrifice,” The Sun (Baltimore, Md.), Feb. 26, 1902, p. 8 (special dispatch).
[205] “Funeral of ‘Tombs Angel,’” New York Times, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 16.
[206] Rev. John B. Devins, supra note 2, at 421.
[207] “At the Tombs Angel’s Bier,” The Sun, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 11.
[208] “Funeral of ‘Tombs Angel,’” New York Times, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 16.
[209] “Funeral of Mrs. Foster,” New-York Daily Tribune, Feb. 26, 1902, p. 9.
[210] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[211] Annual Report, supra note 58, at 91.
[212] “Courts Honor a Woman,” New-York Daily Tribune, Feb. 25, 1902, p. 5.
[215] Eulogy of Rev. William R. Huntington, New York Sun, Feb. 24, 1902, reprinted in part in The Calvary Evangel, Calvary Church Bulletin, Vol. XIV, No. 5 (March 1902), p. 66.
[216] “Everybody’s Friend: Incidents in the Life of the ‘Tombs Angel,’” New-York Daily Tribune, March 2, 1902, p. 8.
[217] “High Tribute To ‘Tombs Angel’ by Commodore Gerry,” The Evening Telegram-New York, April 12, 1909, p. 5.
[218] “Tablet to Mrs. Foster’s Memory,” New-York Daily Tribune, Nov. 19, 1902, p. 6.
[219] “Prisoners in Tears for ‘Tombs Angel,’” Morning World, Feb. 24, 1902.
C. The Foster Memorial
[221] Letter of F. Norton Goddard to Hon. William T. Jerome, April 18, 1902, p. 2.
[222] “A Monument to Mrs. Foster,” The New York Times, May 4, 1902, p. 5.
[225] Letter of President Roosevelt to F. Norton Goddard, April 21, 1902.
[226] David McCullough, Mornings on Horseback 28-29 (Simon & Schuster 2001). Theodore Senior, with Joseph Choate, Pierpont Morgan, and others, also founded the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. The original charter for the latter was approved in the front parlor of the Roosevelt family home in 1869. Id. at 29.
[227] Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt 494-587 (Modern Library 2001).
[228] Id. at 585. Not far from the Five Points intersection, at 19 Elizabeth Street, was the location of the Sixth Precinct. This building, which was opened in 1882, remains the home of the Fifth Precinct today. Given the proximity of the precinct to the Five Points, it seems more than likely that Mrs. Foster had occasion to go there in the course of her work, perhaps to visit prisoners in holding cells. Undoubtedly, Commissioner Roosevelt visited the precinct with some frequency, whether on his nighttime patrols or otherwise. A number of photographs of prisoners, men and women, inside the precinct were taken by Jacob Riis and survive today and one is included in the text of this article.
[229] “Karl Bitter Dies After Saving Wife From Auto,” The Sun, April 11, 1915, p. 14.
[230] Ferdinand Schevill, Karl Bitter: A Biography 11-20, 22-24 (Univ. Chicago Press 1917) [hereinafter cited as “Schevill”]; James M. Dennis, Karl Bitter: Architectural Sculptor 1867-1915 15-20 (Univ. Wisc. Madison 1967) [hereinafter cited as “Dennis”]; Edward H. Brush, “Karl Bitter: An Appreciation,” in Art and Progress, Vol. 6, No. 9, at 296-97 (July 1915); “Broadway a Miles-Long Art Gallery for Those Who Seek,” The Sun, July 4, 1915, p. 38. Ferdinand Schevill was a historian. He took his Ph.D. in Freiburg in 1892 and thereafter taught at the University of Chicago for 45 years. He was the author of many works of history, including a textbook on the history of Western Europe from 1500 which was first issued in 1898 and was revised and republished in many new editions thereafter. He was the brother-in-law of Karl Bitter. University of Chicago Library, Guide to the Ferdinand Schevill Papers, “Biographical Note,” accessible at www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.SCHEVILL.
[231] “Whitney-Vanderbilt,” The Sun, Aug. 26, 1896, p. 1.
[232] Dennis at 20-33. See Denise Kiernan, The Last Castle 66, 67, 126, and 142 (2017).
[234] Id. at 56-63. See the appreciation for the “Progress,” which the author describes as “magnificent,” by Willard Spiegelman, “A Prophetic Paean to Progress,” Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2019.
[235] “The New Custom House,” New York Times, Nov. 8, 1903, p. 9; “To Adorn New Custom House at Bowling Green,” New-York Tribune Illustrated Supplement, Jan. 17, 1904, p. 36.
[236] “New Sculpture in the Park,” New-York Tribune, Nov. 16, 1900, p. 45.
[238] A photograph of the Virginia sculpture appears at New York Times, Feb. 6, 1916, p. 65.
[240] www.nycgovparks.org/parks/henry-hudson-park/highlights/11789.
[242] Photographs of a number of these works and others can be found in the memorial issue of Art and Progress, Vol. 6, No. 9, at 295-312 (July 1915) and in Susan Rather, “Toward a New Language of Form: Karl Bitter and the Beginnings of Archaism in American Sculpture,” Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1-19 (U. Chic. Press Spring 1990). The many photographs of Bitter’s work in Dennis, supra note 230, come from his studio’s files. There are also photographs in Schevill, supra note 230.
[243] Dennis at 73-77; “Big Crowds Watch Work on Dewey Arch,” The World, Sept. 18, 1899, p. 2. The arch was built to honor Admiral George Dewey upon his return from his naval victory over the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in 1898. The arch was a temporary construction. Much of the sculpture was created out of staff, which is chiefly made of powdered gypsum or plaster of Paris, mixed with a little cement and other materials to form a temporary, artificial stone. Staff was also used in expositions, described below, in which Bitter was involved. Thus, Bitter’s sculptural work on the arch and at the expositions was transitory and was quickly destroyed after the events. However, a high relief in staff that he created for the St. Louis exposition on the signing of the treaty that brought about the Louisiana Purchase was later included, in slightly modified form and cast in bronze, in the building housing his Jefferson Monument in Missouri. Dennis at 184 and Fig. 82. A second casting of the relief was done in the 1920’s and is located near the Fountain of the Centaurs on the grounds of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri.
[244] Photographs of the choir rail and pulpit in place in All Angels’ Church on Street 80th Street in Manhattan and of a detail from the model from 1900 are in Dennis at 91-92, Figs. 36 and 37.
[245] Karl Bitter, “Sculpture at the Buffalo Exposition,” Criterion, p. 14 (May 1901).
[247] Id. at 104-110. The success of Bitter’s efforts was somewhat shadowed by the shooting of President William McKinley in the Temple of Music at the Exposition on September 6, 1901, which resulted in his death eight days later.
[248] Dennis at 111. A photo of Bitter overseeing the loading of statuary for the Exposition on rail cars is in “Big Statuary Shipped,“ New-York Tribune, April 8, 1903, p. 1.
[249] “Municipal Sculpture,” Municipal Affairs, Vol. II, No. 1, at 73, 94 (March 1898). Charles R. Lamb had an article in the same issue, which was a publication of the Reform Club. See Dennis at 221-29.
[250] The National Sculpture Society put on a symposium on improvements to many areas of the city suggested by Society members and this symposium was published. National Sculpture Society, “From Battery to Harlem,” Municipal Affairs, Vol. III, at 616 (Dec. 1899). Bitter’s discussion of the Plaza area and the reforms needed there is at p. 632 and following. Again, Charles R. Lamb made an appearance at this symposium. See Dennis at 230-44.
[251] “Karl Bitter Dies After Saving Wife From Auto,” The Sun, April 11, 1915, p. 14.
[252] Dennis at 5; “Plans for St. Gaudens Exercises,” New-York Daily Tribune, Dec. 30, 1907, p. 7.
[253] See Dennis at 5; Smithsonian “Biographical Note,” Archives of American Art, available at www.aaa.si.edu/collections/karl-theodore-francis-bitter-papers-8889/biographical-note. Bitter’s papers and various photographs are at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian.
[254] Professor Schevill recounted a story that reveals something about Bitter’s skills, his determination, and his love of creating with his hands. Bitter had a beloved family cottage on an island in Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks. One year on the night of July 4th, the cottage burned down, almost claiming the lives of his children. Thereafter, Bitter rebuilt the cottage and added a boathouse and a studio and did so himself by hand, with only minimal assistance from the occasional contractor. Schevill at 62-63.
[255] George McAneny, “Karl Bitter: Citizen,” in Art and Progress, Vol. 6, No. 9, at 308 (July 1915).
[257] Condemning property along Broadway would also have been more expensive than doing so in the Five Points neighborhood. See Charles Starks, New York’s Forgotten Master Planner: Rediscovering the Legacy of George McAneny (New York Preservation Archive Project 2016). Public service and municipal improvement were causes that ran deep in the McAneny family: his daughter was a longtime President of the Municipal Art Society.
[258] Colleen P. Popson, “Cultural Loss in Lower Manhattan,” Archaeology, June 19, 2002, accessible at https://archive.archeology.org/online/features/wtcartifacts. See www.gsa.gov/fivepoints and https://r2.gsa.gov/fivept/fphome.htm. See also Rebecca Yamin, New York’s Mythic Slum (1997), accessible at the former gsa page.
[259] Michele Cohen, Director, Sculpture Survey, Art Commission of the City of New York, “Karl Bitter’s Foster Memorial Rediscovered,” in New Discoveries in American Art (J. Kuchna, ed.), American Art Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2, p. 78 n. 10 (Spring 1986). A photograph of the model for the Foster Memorial in plaster is in Dennis at 12, Fig. 3.
[260] Dennis, at 12, Fig. 3 (a photograph of the model).
[261] Bitter’s brother-in-law gave the following interpretation of the relief in his biography: “The marble plaque in medium relief shows a winged angel who has come from behind unawares and is whispering the message of hope and charity to a boy fallen by the wayside. At the words the mask of evil which the boy has worn falls as by magic from his face. The upturned eyes see for the first time and the half-open, innocent lips proclaim that the mouth, stubbornly closed so long, has been unsealed by the warm touch of love.” Schevill at 41. Professor Schevill wrote that the realistic medallion portrait of Mrs. Foster was a concession by Bitter to “some of the too literal friends of the brave woman who certainly showed that she was anything but literal in her championship of the youthful victims of the disorders of our cities.” Id. at 41-42. Bitter, Schevill suggested, would have preferred a more idealistic monument in full. Perhaps Schevill had in mind the contrasting approach taken by Bitter in 1904, the year in which the Foster Monument was unveiled, in the case of the Villard Memorial at the grave of Henry Villard in Sleepy Hollow, which is entirely allegorical. Bitter persuaded the Villard family to commemorate the idea that had dominated the life of Villard rather than to portray the deceased with rigorous realism. Schevill at 40.
[262] “New City Club Opened,” New-York Daily Tribune, Jan. 2, 1904, p. 2; “City Club’s New Home,” New York Times, Jan. 2, 1904, p. 8.
[263] “Mrs. Foster’s Memorial,” New-York Daily Tribune, Dec. 24, 1903, p. 5.
[264] The City Record, April 18, 1905, p. 3133.
[265] Michele Cohen, supra note 259, at p. 78 n. 10 (noting that the Art Commission had recommended moving the situs of the memorial in response to the request of the judges).
[267] “The Architectural League,” New York Times, Feb. 3, 1906, p. 8.
[268] “Karl Bitter Escapes Narrowly in Runaway,” New York Times, Feb. 26, 1903, p. 1.
[269] “Karl Bitter Dies After Saving Wife From Auto,” The Sun, April 11, 1915, p. 14. The unveiling of Bitter’s third sculpture of Thomas Jefferson, in Virginia, took place three days after the accident. He had planned to be present. Schevill at 53.
D. What Happened to the Memorial
[271] Michele Cohen, supra note 259, at pp. 76-77.
[272] A Proposition for the Removal, Relocation or Alteration of a Work of Art (Rec’d Oct. 31, 1988).
[273] Conservation Treatment Proposal, by William L. Hickman.
[274] Resolution of the Art Commission, adopted Nov. 14, 1988.
E. The Foster Family and a Home for the Marble Relief
[275] The assault on Jeremy Ann Brown was the subject of a radio program, www.thisamericanlife.org/604/20-years-later.
[276] Kate Burns Ottavino, A. Ottavino Corp., Final Treatment Report for the Foster Memorial, May 4, 2017.
[277] See, e.g., Meilan Solly, “Long-Forgotten Monument to Prison Reformer Will Be Reinstalled in New York Courthouse” (June 17, 2019), accessible at https://smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/long-forgotten-monument-nyc-prison-reformer-will-be-reinstalled-state-courthouse-180972432/; David Handschuh, “1904 Monument to ‘Tombs Angel’ Rededicated at Court,” New York Law Journal (June 26, 2019), www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2019/06.
[278] Peter Libbey, “An Angel of the City, Regaining Her Glow,” N.Y. Times, p. C1 (June 17, 2019).
[279] For a discussion of the “city beautiful” and the importance of civic centers to urban life, see Jon Ritter, “The Expression of Civic Life: Civic Centers and the City Beautiful in New York City,” in M. McGowan & E. Macaulay-Lewis (Eds.), Classical New York: Greece and Rome in New York City’s Art and Architecture, 1830-1940 (New York: Fordham Univ. Press 2018).
[280] Mr. Pigott is the author of New York’s Legal Landmarks: A Guide to Legal Edifices, Institutions, Lore, History and Curiosities on the City’s Streets (2d ed. 2018). Mr. Pigott has also written for various publications, including online. See, e.g., note 165 above.
[281] The entirety of the ceremony can be found on the website of the Historical Society of the New York State Courts at the following address: https://history.nycourts.gov/rebecca-salome-foster-the-tombs-angel-1848-1902/.
[282] Edward H. Brush, supra note 230, at p. 298; photographs of the Crane piece are at John G. Milburn, “Karl Bitter: Exposition Builder,” Art and Progress, Vol. 6, No. 9, at 307 (July 1915), and in Dennis at 10, Fig. 2.
[283] Edward H. Brush, supra note 230, at p. 298.
[284] Julia Baird, “Putting Women on Pedestals,” Sept. 4, 2017, A21, col. 1; Thomas Furse, “In London, Female Statue Nears Reality,” Sept. 21, 2017, A6, col. 1; Julia Jacobs, “City Will Add 4 Statues of Women, Noting a Gender Gap And Starting to Fix It,” March 7, 2019, A18, col. 1; Gail Collins, “Where the Girls Aren’t,” March 30, 2019, A27, col. 5; Julian Steinhauer, “Chisholm Monument Finds Its Designers,” April 24, 2019, C1, col. 3. See also Erin L. Thompson, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments (2022).
[285] The authors express their gratitude to Allison M. Morey, Programs Director, the Historical Society of the New York Courts, for her characteristically excellent help in the preparation of this article.
Table of Contents
A. Introduction
B. The Life and Work of Rebecca Salome Foster
- The Backgrounds of Rebecca and John A. Foster
- New York City in the Late 19th Century
- How Mrs. Foster’s Work Began
- What Mrs. Foster Did for Prisoners, Their Families, the Courts, and Others
- Mrs. Foster’s Work in Her Own Words
- Funding the Work
- Providing Legal Assistance
- Traveling Throughout the City and Elsewhere
- The Tombs and “Five Points”
- How Mrs. Foster’s Work Came to an End
D. What Happened to the Memorial
E. The Foster Family and a Home for the Marble Relief
G. Endnotes