L’Esposizione Generale Italiana del 1898

The Esposizione Generale Italiana of 1898 was held in Turin, Italy from April to October to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Albertine Statute, which was the fundamental statute of united Italty from 1861 until 1948. King Umberto I of Italy attended the opening ceremony.

The exhibition had about 8,000 exhibitors along with 43 national or international congresses, as well as displays by 147 Italian painters, architects, and sculptors in the Fine Arts Division. There were an estimated three and a half million visitors to the exhibition. Foreign companies were only allowed in the Electricity Gallery or in the Gallery del Lavoro. [Source: Wikipedia]

Alexandre Lion had a large exhibit of incubators with live babies in a dedicated building. A comprehensive booklet about the incubators and the care and feeding of the babies was distributed to visitors.

Lion’s exhibit received a passing mention in the Cosmos issue of October 8, 1898, which contained a several-page overview of the Exposition:

Puis le pavillon de l’oeuvre maternelle des couveuses d’enfants, autrement dit maternité Lion, qui n’est pas précisément une nouveauté, ayant été produite ailleurs plusieurs fois déjà, mais qui n’était pas encore connue en Italie.

Then the pavilion of the infant incubator project—or, in other words, the Lion Maternity Pavilion—which is not exactly a novelty, having already been produced elsewhere several times, but which was not yet known in Italy.

There are souvenir postcards of the incubator pavilion, although they are rare on auction sites.

A map of the exhibit grounds is shown below.

General Information
- Alexandre Lion
- The Lion Incubator
- The Engineer and the Newborns, by W. A. Nelson and Paul L. Toubas
Lion Patents (France)
- Patent 201550, 1889, Couveuse électro-automatique
- Patent 221716, 1892, Couveuse automatique
- Patent 262090, 1896, Chambre vivifiante
- Patent 281687, 1898, Système de filtration de l’air
- Patent 287557, 1899, Système de filtration des fumées, de l’air et de toutes masses gazeuses avec tirage et ventilation
- Patent 189989, 1899, Appareil pour le filtrage et la purification de l’air et des fumées
Maternité Lion Institutes
Maternité Lion Souvenir Booklets
- Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants , Paris Institute, Booklet Version #1 (appears to be ~1896)
- Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants , Paris Institute, Booklet Version #2 (appears to be ~1901)
- Pamphlet from Alexander Lion’s exhibit at the 1898 exhibition in Torino, Italy. (PDF supplied by Dr. Thijs Gras, Amsterdam)
Press Coverage
- La Maternité “Lion de Nice” pour Enfants Nés Avant Terme ou Débiles, by Dr. Ciaudo, 1895. Source: gallica.bnf.fr.
  - English translation
- Presentation d’Appareil, by M. A. Pinard, Bulletin de l’Académie nationale de médecine, 1893. Source: gallica.bnf.fr.
- Les couveuses d’enfant et le gavage, by César-A Queirolo, Includes discussion of Lion incubator and comparison to other types. Thèse de doctorat: Univ. Genève, 1897.
- Les Couveuses pour Enfants, Gazette Médicale de Paris, No. 40, October 6, 1900
- Couveuses d’Enfants, La Maternité Lion, Paris, La Patrie, 1897
- Paris Letter: An Improved System of Incubators, by O. Jennings, Pediatrics 1:427-428, 1896
- Baby Incubators, The Strand Magazine, 1896, by James Walter Smith
- Human Infant Incubation: A True Fairy-Tale of Modern Science from Leslie’s Weekly, 1897
- The Saving of Human Life, Maternité Lion in NYC, The Literary Digest, 1898
- Immature Infants in France, from The Lancet, January 16, 1897, page 196.
- Alexandre Lion’s Incubator Charities in Europe (1894–1898) (The Embryo Project)
Worlds Fairs and Expositions

Last Updated on 09/03/26