Established 2023
Canaries at Eastern State
Monday, November 11, 2024
Dominique Chamorro
Canaries in Eastern State
Eastern State Penitentiary is a former prison in Pennsylvania that was open between 1829 and 1971. The prison is now considered a US landmark. The collection of media written at the prison uncovered many mentions of canary birds. The historic structure report made by Eastern State noted over 2x the number of pets compared to incarcerated people in 1884. The Eastern State website also stated that the incarcerated men were allowed to have these canaries as pets.
Birds as Currency
Canary birds were mentioned over 30 times in the local Eastern State newspaper, the Umpire. Many of these mentions were included in the classified ads sections. This leads to the conclusion that these birds were used as an exchange or currency. At times, the birds were sold; in others, they were exchanged for another valuable item. The canaries would also sometimes go missing, and the men would make many attempts to find them due to their suspected value.
Canary Bird Singers
Consistently, articles written by the incarcerated men in The Umpire mentioned the canaries, explicitly highlighting their beautiful singing in poems and stories. One can assume that these canaries could sing and make melodies, making them more valuable to the prison and more comforting to the incarcerated men in these small, dark cells.
Below is an audio of a canary bird singing a melody recorded through a microphone. This audio gives a peek into what made canary birds so “sweet singing,” as mentioned by the men
The Bird King
Carl Hoffman, labeled B 5575, was an incarcerated person who the Eastern State incarcerated men commonly knew as the Bird King. This conclusion on the status of Carl was gathered due to the consistent ads in the classifieds of a Bird King who treated bird ailments and cut their claws. These services seemed free of charge, different from the For Sale ads of the birds. His love for birds is seen through mentions of him training them to trapeze and caring for them. Through his Ancestry, it was gathered he was from Prussia, and he was convicted of the crime of rape. Carl’s life inside Eastern State made it impossible to reconcile the loving nature he had towards animals and the horrible actions he had committed to get where he was then.
Emotional Impact of Birds
Although not a typical pet outside of Eastern State, canary birds have been shown to have a significant emotional impact on the men in the penitentiary. The canaries were a ray of sweetness, colorfulness, and light compared to the solitude and darkness within these buildings and cells. However, this stark contrast between the incarcerated men's crime and these innocent birds could hint at why they cared for them this much. There were instances of reporting on the deaths of a canary bird how that would lay a heavy hand, signifying the influence these animals had on the them.
On the other hand, even when speaking and telling stories about these birds, they would project actual human emotions onto them. These stories could be interpreted as the incarcerated men trying to humanize these pets. Although these Canaries offered joy and companionship at Eastern State, it's still hard to reconcile the contrast to some of the major crimes these men committed. A solid underlying tension tells two sides and perspectives to this relationship.
Image and Information Sources
All images and audio are fair use and come from The Umpire, Creative Commons, Ancestry Database and/or before 1924. Images and audio of Canary birds come from Creative Commons, and article images from The Umpire.
Information gathered from easternstate.org and their historic structures report
