Thomas Mott Osborne
| Thomas Mott Osborne | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Warden of Sing Sing | |
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In office December 1, 1914 – December 31, 1915 |
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| Appointed by | John B. Riley |
| Preceded by | George S. Weed |
| Succeeded by | George Washington Kirchwey |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 23, 1859 Auburn, New York |
| Died | October 20, 1926 (aged 67) Auburn, New York |
| Spouse(s) | Agnes Devens (m. 1886; her death 1896) |
| Parents | David M. Osborne (1822–1886) |
Thomas Mott Osborne (September 23, 1859 – October 20, 1926) was an American prison administrator, prison reformer, industrialist and New York State political reformer. He was also known as "Tom Brown," a name he gave himself when he spent a week in the Auburn State Prison in New York state in 1913.
In an assessment of Osborne's life, a New York Times book reviewer wrote: "His career as a penologist was short, but in the interval of the few years he served he succeeded in revolutionizing American prison reform, if not always in fact, then in awakening responsibility.... He was made of the spectacular stuff of martyrs, to many people perhaps ridiculous, but to those whose lives his theories most closely touched, inspiring and often godlike."
He was born on September 23, 1859, in Auburn, New York, to David M. Osborne (1822–1886). Auburn was a center of progressive political activity, particularly anti-slavery activism before and during the American Civil War. His family included a number of eminent reformers, particularly his grandmother, Martha Coffin Wright and her sister, Lucretia Coffin Mott, who were organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention on women's rights, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in Seneca Falls, New York.
His grandmother, Martha Coffin Wright, and in succession her daughter and Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, and a niece, Josephine Osborne, oversaw the finances of Harriet Tubman, who spent her last half-century in Auburn. Martha's home in Auburn was part of the Underground Railroad where she harbored fugitive slaves. Both women frequented the Osborne household during Thomas Mott Osborne's upbringing. The third of the Coffin sisters, Ellen, or as she is known to her descendants, Nella, married William Lloyd Garrison Jr., the son of the noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Thomas Mott Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, wife of David Munson Osborne, was also a feminist leader, though of lesser note.
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