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Coney Island Incubator Sideshows

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Coney Island Incubator Sideshows

Martin Couney was the proprietor of “incubator baby exhibits” at many of the large Expositions and World’s Fairs at the turn of the 20th century, starting with the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898, and continuing through the New York World’s Fair of 1939. He also operated more permanent incubator sideshows at several amusement parks; the best known and documented are Dreamland and Luna Park at Coney Island, New York. According to news reports at that time, at least 8000 babies passed through the Coney Island incubators, and at least 6500 survived.

Photograph is courtesy of Beth Allen, used with permission, and may not be used elsewhere without permission of the owner – bethallen@optonline.net

Above: The Luna Park incubator sideshow entrance at night, ca. 1941.

“Life begins at the BABY INCUBATORS. Here trained nurses care for premature and weakly born infants. For forty years the Baby Incubators have attracted the attention of men, women, and children. An educational journey through a spotless, strictly hygienic, miniature hospital. It is housed on the Boardwalk adjacent to the entrance of Steeplechase Park.” — Coney Island Tourist Booklet, undated, but appears to be late 1930s or early 1940s, by Jo Ranson.

The Incubator Sideshow entrance is seen behind the Luna Ride. Source: Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.
https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/longview/2018/10/under-the-lens-coney-islands-baby-incubators/ 

The sideshow at Luna Park operated from 1903 to 1945.

“Beth Allen was born 2 months premature in 1941. Desperate to save her, and with few other options — hospitals of the day had no facilities for premature infants — Beth’s parents placed her in the care of Dr. Martin Couney… who for decades operated his neonatal care facility as a 10 cent sideshow at Coney Island.” — — Coney Island History Project web site.

Beth Allen has been kind enough to let us use a number of her photographs. An interview with Beth Allen is available on the Coney Island History web site, along with an interview with her cousin Terry Silverman.

Photograph is courtesy of Beth Allen, used with permission, and may not be used elsewhere without permission of the owner – bethallen@optonline.net

Above: A picture of Beth Allen and Martin Couney taken in 1941 at Luna Park.

Photograph is courtesy of Beth Allen, used with permission, and may not be used elsewhere without permission of the owner – bethallen@optonline.net

Above: Visiting Beth Allen.

Photograph is courtesy of Beth Allen, used with permission, and may not be used elsewhere without permission of the owner – bethallen@optonline.net

Above: Beth Allen’s incubator.

Photograph is courtesy of Beth Allen, used with permission, and may not be used elsewhere without permission of the owner – bethallen@optonline.net

Above: Beth Allen close-up in the incubator.

Photograph is courtesy of Beth Allen, used with permission, and may not be used elsewhere without permission of the owner – bethallen@optonline.net

Above: Beth Allen being held by one of the nurses in the Coney Island Incubator exhibit on the Midway.

Photograph is courtesy of Beth Allen, used with permission, and may not be used elsewhere without permission of the owner – bethallen@optonline.net

Above: Beth Allen and Lecturer O’Neill.

Photograph is courtesy of Beth Allen, used with permission, and may not be used elsewhere without permission of the owner – bethallen@optonline.net

Above: Beth Allen in her bassinet, after graduation from the incubator.

Above: Three nurses from the Coney Island exhibit, holding six premature infants having an average weight of 2 pounds.

Above: When the census was high, premies shared an incubator.

Source: New York Daily Tribune, July 10, 1903, page 7.

Martin Couney’s exhibit at Dreamland was similar to the Luna Park exhibit, but relatively short-lived. Dreamland, built in 1904 and one of Coney Island’s three amusement parks, was considered more “refined and orderly” than Luna Park and Steeplechase Park. When a fire destroyed Dreamland in 1911, the babies were moved to the Luna Park incubator exhibit. Perhaps the first emergency transport of sick newborns on a large scale! Consequently, most of the pictures and documentation still available is focused on Luna Park.

The following article appeared in the New York Times on August 8, 1904:

Half A Million At Coney
Excursions Make Crowd A Record Breaker — The Tiniest Baby

Coney Island entertained within its borders yesterday more strangers, that is, more people from beyond the confines of New York than on any day this year, and it is likely that the crowd has never been greater on any day in the resort’s history. A number of excursions were run to the Island yesterday from points in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington and other points, and more than half a million people viewed the wonders of the rejuvenated resort.
The beach was thronged during the day, and nearly all the big bath houses were forced to close up early in the day, as all their suits had been hired out and the rooms taken.

Dr. Couney’s incubators at Dreamland have now the smallest baby which has ever been received in any like institution and it is claimed that no record of a child of its size having lived over a few hours, exists. Dr. C. S. Patterson, brought the little fellow from Brooklyn yesterday. He was swathed in cotton and weight just 1 pound and 6 ounces, being 11 1/2 inches tall. It is too small to be put into the incubators and is being fed by hand. Frequent inhalations of oxygen are necessary to keep its little heart beating. Dr. Couney said yesterday that it had a very good fighting chance for its life.

The following article appeared in the New York Times on August 1, 1904:

Incubator Graduates Hold A Reunion
Forty Healthy Babies Meet at Coney Island

Their Photographs Taken

Greatest Interest in the Triplets — Low Death Rate Among the Infants

The alumni and alumnae of the Incubator College, the tiny mites of humanity that have been saved through science, held their first annual reunion at Dreamland, Coney Island, yesterday, and made one of the most remarkable gatherings of infants on record. They were not only the youngsters that had been reared in the Dreamland institute of incubation, but those which in the years gone by had been saved by the incubators at Luna Park, at Atlantic City, and even at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo three years ago.
The first idea of the reunion was to give the rescued babies and their mothers and fathers a good time, but Drs. Couney and Fischel were also anxious to see how the babies were getting along. In both plans the result was eminently satisfactory, for it would be hard to find a finer set of infants anywhere than those which cooed in their mothers’ arms while their photographs were being taken yesterday afternoon, or a more satisfied lot of paters and maters after they had had luncheon at the expense of the management, and “done” the Island free of cost.

In all forty graduates put in an appearance. Naturally the triplets came in for the most attention. Heading the list were the three little Cohen girls, Rebecca, Rose, and Rachel, who were born in a house on Pike Street on July 17, 1901, and two days thereafter were taken to Buffalo by Dr. Fischel. The Cohen girls are as big as any young ladies of their age, yet three years ago the whole three weighed only as much as one infant of usual weight.

Theodore Roosevelt Rosofsky, who was born on July 5 last, went with his father to visit his two little brothers, who are still in the incubator establishment. They are William McKinley and Benjamin Harrison Rosofsky.

Dr. M. A. Couney of Berlin, who is the inventor of the incubator system, and who, with Dr. Edward Wallace Lee of this city first installed the apparatus at the Omaha Exposition in 1897, told the mothers that, whereas about 97 percent of infants such as are reared in the incubators die, there havd been lost but 6 out of 56 at the Pan-American, 4 out of 32 at Luna Park last year, and but 3 out of 38 at Dreamland this year. This year’s list in the freshman class includes three sets of twins and one of triplets.

Martin Couney was also a dealer for the Kny-Scheerer Co. incubators, manufactured under license from Alexandre Lion, that he used in his exhibits. Evidently the “Incubator Company” was one of his DBAs.

Martin Arthur Couney

Martin Couney Exhibits in World’s Fairs and National Expositions

Martin Couney Sideshows in Amusement Parks

Recent Books

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.