Atlantic City Boardwalk

Martin Couney’s baby incubator attractions were featured at prominent expos and amusement parks, including Atlantic City’s pier and boardwalk. Couney also had a presence at Coney Island’s Luna Park, and at a number of the World’s Fair expositions including the 1939 New York City’s World Fair, the Omaha Trans-Mississippi Exposition, the Buffalo Exposition and the Chicago World’s Fair.

In Atlantic City, the permanent infant incubator exhibit was located on the Boardwalk at Arkansas Avenue, across from Million Dollar Pier, which was built by John Lake Young. The exhibit was in place as early as 1902. Admission at first was one dollar to see the infants and hear a lecture on their care. Later, the price was changed to whatever donation the visitor wished to make.

The New York Times took note of the exhibit in the article “Atlantic City’s Season,” April 10, 1904.

The exhibit was publicized in articles, advertisements, and even a float in an Atlantic City parade.

The excerpt below is from Gaston Lichenstein’s 1908 book, “A Visit to Young’s Pier.”

Four babies are being cared for by the institution on Young’s Pier. One of them, a healthy youngster of eleven pounds and four ounces, arrived on April 15th, weighing three pounds and two ounces. He is a seven months’ premature specimen. Another, that arrived on April 20th, weighing two bounds and twelve ounces, now tips the scales at eight pounds and eight ounces.

A Filipino premature baby of six months, the smallest baby on record in the world that is alive today (June 26, 1905), is twenty six days old, and weights two pounds and two ounces. Only nature food is supplied, and the different babies are subjected to varying temperatures, from eight-five degrees upward, according to their condition.

A scale, weighing to a small fraction of an ounce, is publicly exhibited. This delicate apparatus insures accuracy. The “nursery” is enclosed in glass, so that visitors can obtain a full view of the artificial arrangements.

Three of the four infants came under my observation. The extraordinarily youthful Filipino, who is yet imperfectly developed, lies in a state of apparent obliviousness, but, a youngster about to be discharged, who now lives in the open air and who was being held by a nurse, appeared strong and healthy like any normal child.

The postcard below shows an “Incubator Babies” sign on the mid-level of a larger building on the pier, which has been described elsewhere as “a three-story Italianate villa complete with conservatory and classical statuary.” (Atlantic City Weekly), The image is labeled “Young’s Pier” and dated 1905. This was probably just advertising for the exhibit, which is known to have been located on the Boardwalk across from the Pier.

Hildegard Couney, Martin Couney’s daughter, attended nursing school at the Atlantic City Hospital. After her graduation, she was put in charge of the Atlantic City incubator baby exhibit. The picture below shows Hildegard Couney holding a baby at the Atlantic City exhibit. This photo is found on several web sites (e.g. FindAGrave) and for sale on Getty Images. I have tried to find the original article containing this photo, but have been unsuccessful so far.

On July 5th 1927, a fire swept through Atlantic City supposedly started by a lit cigarette carelessly thrown on the Boardwalk planks. Before the flames could be tamed, they had scorched nearly a city block on the Boardwalk between Columbia Place and Arkansas Avenue. An article from the New York Times reported that “about fourteen babies were in an incubator building on the Boardwalk, one of the places destroyed [by fire].” However, the babies in peril were rescued by physicians, nurses and good Samaritans and carted to shelter within the Shelbourne Hotel.

The Atlantic City exhibit closed in 1943. [Source: www.atlanticcityexperience.org]

• “What is the incubator baby exhibit” at The Atlantic City Experience web site.

Martin Arthur Couney

• Short biography of Martin Couney
• Martin Couney, Wikipedia
• Martin Couney’s Obituary, from The New York Times, March 2, 1950.

Martin Couney Exhibits in World’s Fairs and National Expositions

• Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl’s Court, 1897
• Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, 1898
• Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901
• Lewis and Clark Exposition, Portland, 1905
• Panama-Pacific International Exposition San Francisco, 1915
• Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933-34
• New York World’s Fair, New York, 1939-1940

Martin Couney Sideshows in Amusement Parks

• Coney Island Sideshow at Luna Park
• Coney Island Sideshow at Dreamland
• Lakeside Amusement Park, Denver.
• Luna Park, Pittsburgh
• Wonderland – Minneapolis and St. Paul
• Wonderland – Revere Beach
• Boardwalk – Atlantic City
• White City Amusement Park – Chicago
• White City Amusement Park, Indianapolis, Indiana
• White City Amusement Park, Cleveland, Ohio

Recent Books

• The Strange Case of Dr. Couney, by Dawn Raffel, Blue Rider Press, ISBN 0399175741
• Miracle at Coney Island, by Claire Prentice (Kindle or audiobook)

General Articles

General articles about Martin Couney and his exhibits are linked below. Additional links may be found in specific posts about his participation in expositions or sideshows.

Keep in mind that many of these were written before the full facts about Martin Couney’s background became known, or have not incorporated that new information, so they include information from his self-invented background legend.

• Incubator Baby Sideshows, by William Silverman, from Pediatrics.
• Postscript to Incubator-Baby Sideshows, by William. Silverman, from Pediatrics
• Martin Couney’s Story Revisited, by William Silverman, from Pediatrics
• Martin Couney’s Obituary, from The New York Times, March 2, 1950.
• A Patron of the Premies, by A. J. Liebling, from The New Yorker
• The Coney Island Baby Laboratory, by Gary R. Brown, from American Heritage Invention and Technology Magazine
• American Characters: Martin Couney, by Richard Snow, from American Heritage Magazine
• The Man Who Ran a Carnival Attraction… by Claire Prentice, from Smithsonian Magazine
• Life under Glass, audio documentary by Claire Prentice, from the BBC
• Martin Couney and Incubator Exhibits from 1896 to 1943, from the Embryo Project
• The Incubator Baby and Niagara Falls, by Arthur Brisbane, from The Cosmopolitan
• Babies on Display, from NPR
• Beginner’s Luck, from Family Circle Magazine 1993
• Coney Island’s Incubator Babies, by Rebecca Rego Barry, from JSTOR Daily
• The Infantorium, by Katie Shornton, from 99% Invisible
• How One Man Saved a Generation of Premature Babies, from BBC News
• Baby Incubators: From Boardwalk Sideshow to Medical Marvel, by Erin Blackmore, from History.Com
• Babies in Sideshows, by Julie Andreson, from Engines of our Ingenuity
• Dr. Martin Couney, from Coney Island History Project
• “The Use of Incubators for Infants,” The Lancet, May 29, 1897.
• “The Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl’s Court,” The Lancet, July 17, 1897.
• Incubator Baby Shows: A Medical and Social Frontier, by Hannah Lieberman, from The History Teacher 35.1, November, 2001.
• The Child Hatchery, from City Pages.

Last Updated on 02/05/23