Here is a little bit of Victorian trivia to start off the week It is really just a sampling of what I was able to find out. I have restrained myself from writing a whole essay, since you and I both have other things to do!In any case...I found this stereograph of a lady using a drinking fountain in Brooklyn's Prospect Park and was intrigued, because I had never imagined that they had existed in the 1870s. The fountain was certainly there by 1876, when someone advertised in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle's Lost and Found column that they had lost three rings "at the drinking fountain near the children's arbor."
The first drinking fountain seems to have been in London, England. It was funded by Quaker Samuel Gurney, who set up the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association in 1859. It was set into the wall of St. Sepulchre's Church and came complete with attached cups. On the right, you can see the great opening celebration for Gurney's fountain.By 1867 the Association was also providing cattle troughs for horses to drink from; and in 1893 Brooklyn had a horses' drinking fountain, too (photo here), installed under the aegis of Miss Emma Toedteberg and the ASPCA.
In New York, the earliest drinking fountain seems to have been opened, as in London, in 1859; it was located in what appears to be Bryant Park, near the Croton Reservoir at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The New York Sabbath Committee remarked that:
It was placed there under the direction of the Croton Aqueduct Board, and is simply a large hydrant, to the mouth of which is attached a patent spout, invented by F.H. Bartholomew, No. 84 Marion Street, the peculiarity of which is such that you have only to touch the cup to it to get the water to flow freely. Attached to the hydrant by long chains are drinking-cups of cast iron.
By 1869 there was also a drinking fountain in Central Park, when Clarence Cook mentions it in his A description of the New York Central Park (1869, p. 138). It was set into the "bridge of red and yellow brick near the Seventh Avenue."
The Prospect Park fountain picture is from NYPL, as is the picture of the opening of the first drinking fountain in London in 1859.
Cook, Clarence, A description of the New York Central Park (1869), p. 138.
The Drinking Fountain Association
Duncan, Andrew. Secret London (2006), p. 79.
"Lost and Found," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 29, 1876, p. 3.
New York City Fountains (not just for drinking!) at Wired New York
New York Sabbath Committee, "Drinking Fountains," Document No 7 (1859), p. 32.
Younger, William Lee. Old Brooklyn in Early Photographs (1978), p. 67.
6 comments:
As always, Lidian, a post as enlightening as it is fascinating. As someone who loves water fountains and Quakers, it's wonderful to learn that they are connected. Who knew?
James
http://zheist.blogspot.com
I love the decorative Victorian works, they really let their imaginations take hold!
The first drinking fountain was actually opened at Hammersmith, England on July 19th, 1685 by Sir Samuel Morland.
James - I am a big fan of the Quakers, or rather Friends, too - descended from some Welsh Quakers and related to Elias Hicks who formed the breakaway liberal branch of Quakers, the Hicksites :)
Jayne - Thank you so much! I had no idea that it was as early as that.
Fascinating post! Just to follow on what Jayne said, I'm sure I remember reading about a public drinking fountain in Oxford in the 17th or 18th century (but I might be misremembering something).
Great stuff as always!
I wonder when did they segregate them first. sorry to throw a blanket on your post with a question like that but to me, it's quite relevant since I personally remember seeing the Colored waterfountains. and yes there was a sign.
Richard - Thanks, I didn't know about those either (obviously!)
RE - Excellent question; I really don't know, but they didn't appear to be segregated back in the mid-nineteenth century, as far as I know (in NY anyway). If I find out anything, I'll add it to this post.
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