Auburn Prison Register of Deaths

Chronological.

This series consists of two volumes created by the Auburn Prison physician for the purpose of documenting deaths of Auburn Prison inmates as required by Chapter 382 of the Laws of 1889.

Volume 1 (1888-1937) consists of pages with printed headings filled in. Deaths of approximately 500 inmates are documented. Categories of information include name of deceased, place of birth, age, time of death, crime, term of sentence, race, disease (i.e. cause of death including executions), remarks, and signature of physician. Remarks may include information regarding sentence, transfers from other institutions, personal habits (temperate, moderate, or intemperate), disposal of body, circumstances of death (rarely given) and cross reference apparently to other case records.

Volume 2 (1896-1920) documents the disposition of the bodies of the prisoners. Information given includes identification number, name, date of death, date of burial (seldom filled in), name of relative, address of relative, by whom claimed, to whom or what institution delivered, and date of delivery.

Attached to the inside cover of volume 2 is a notice signed by the chancellor of Syracuse University and dean of the Syracuse University College of Medicine notifying the Auburn Prison physician of several state laws that require the physician to notify the University whenever there is any corpse in his possession, and of the disposition made of the same. That is the type of information recorded in this book, which was provided to the physician for those purposes.

Information in the registers is abstracted and indexed in Mark W. DeLawyer, Deaths at Auburn Prison, Cayuga County, New York, 1888-1937 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2003).

Volume 2 was added to this series in 1999 as a result of a project by Archives staff to integrate or accession estrayed or unidentified records.