1859 First Insanity Plea Sickles, Blackwells Asylum (Pre-Nellie Bly) — Mar 19 For Sale

🗞️ HARPERS WEEKLY · March 19, 1859
Complete Issue · New historically exceptional issue connecting two of the most significant events in American legal and journalistic history — the first use of the temporary insanity defense in an American murder trial (Daniel Sickles, still in prison on this date), and a ten-illustration documentary of the Blackwells Island Lunatic Asylum, the exact institution where Nellie Bly would go undercover twenty-eight years later to expose its horrors in her landmark 1887 investigative report. A primary document of two defining moments in American legal and womens history, in one complete DANIEL SICKLES — THE FIRST INSANITY FRONT PAGE — \"HON. DANIEL E. SICKLES IN PRISON AT WASHINGTON\" — WITH ARTICLE \"THE WASHINGTON TRAGEDY\"
A front-page illustration of Congressman Daniel E. Sickles in prison in Washington — at the moment he was being held for the murder of Philip Barton Key II (son of Francis Scott Key), shot dead in Lafayette Square on February 27, 1859. Sickles was represented by Edwin Stanton — future Secretary of War under Lincoln — who mounted the first-ever successful temporary insanity defense in an American murder trial. The jury acquitted Sickles after deliberating for less than an hour. The verdict was one of the most controversial legal decisions of the 19th century, establishing a legal precedent that would be invoked in courtrooms for the next 165 years. Sickles went on to command a Union corps at Gettysburg, where he lost his leg, and his preserved leg bone is today displayed at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington. This front-page illustration — showing Sickles in his prison cell just days after the murder and weeks before his acquittal — is a primary document of a landmark moment in American legal BLACKWELLS ISLAND ASYLUM — PRE-NELLIE TWO AND A HALF PAGE ARTICLE & TEN ILLUSTRATIONS — \"A VISIT TO THE LUNATIC ASYLUM ON BLACKWELLS ISLAND\"
A two-and-a-half page article with ten illustrations documenting the Lunatic Asylum on Blackwells Island — the East River institution in the middle of New York City where thousands of the citys mentally ill were confined, many of them poor immigrant women who had been committed on dubious grounds. Published in 1859, this comprehensive documentary of the asylums conditions is a primary document of institutional mental health care in America — and a direct precursor to one of the most famous pieces of investigative journalism ever written. Twenty-eight years later, in 1887, Nellie Bly — reporting for Joseph Pulitzers New York World — had herself committed to the same Blackwells Island asylum by feigning insanity, spending ten days inside and emerging to write \"Ten Days in a Mad-House,\" one of the most celebrated works of undercover investigative journalism in American history. Bly documented beatings, ice-cold baths used as punishment, rotten food, and patients who were perfectly sane being held indefinitely. Her report led directly to a $1 million increase in the New York City Department of Public Charities budget and major reforms in patient care. This Harpers Weekly ten-illustration documentary — showing the asylum twenty-eight years before Blys exposé — is a primary document of the very institution she would make famous, capturing conditions that had clearly changed little in the intervening decades. An essential piece for any collection of womens history, journalism history, mental health history, and New York City INSIDE THE FULL PAGE — \"THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN POLICE\" — NINE ILLUSTRATIONS
Nine illustrations of the New York Metropolitan Police — a significant piece of New York City law enforcement history, published just two years after the creation of the Metropolitan Police in 1857 following the famous \"Police Riot\" between the old Municipal Police and the new Metropolitan force.🏰 ILLUSTRATION — \"VIEW OF THE BATTERIES AT HUMAITA, ON THE PARAGUAY RIVER\" — WITH PLAN OF FORTIFICATIONS
An illustration and plan of the Paraguayan fortifications at Humaita — a significant piece of South American military history, capturing the great river fortress that would later become famous during the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70).🏛️ ILLUSTRATION — \"THE EXCHANGE AT BUENOS AYRES\"
An illustration of the Exchange at Buenos Aires — a significant piece of Argentine and South American commercial history.👤 SMALL PORTRAIT — \"THE LATE POSTMASTER-GENERAL, HON. A. V. BROWN\"
A small memorial portrait of Aaron Venable Brown — the Postmaster General under President Buchanan, who died March 8, 1859, just eleven days before this issue. A piece of Antebellum American postal and political photograph every page of every issue so you can inspect the condition closely before purchasing. Please review all images carefully and dont hesitate to ask any questions — Im happy to provide additional detail or close-up shots of any page, illustration, or area of concern before you ········ Harpers Weekly
Date ··············· March 19, 1859
City ··············· New York
Format ············· Illustrated newspaper, complete in 16 SHIPPING & Stored in an acid-free protective bag and flat-shipped in a padded envelope with heavy cardboard reinforcement
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