National Law Enforcement Museum Co-hosts J. Edgar Premiere

Last night, the National Law Enforcement Museum co-hosted the Washington, DC premiere of Clint Eastwood's film, J. Edgar at the Newseum.

Mr. Eastwood, Honorary Chairman of the National Law Enforcement Museum and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund gathered alongside special guests and dignitaries to promote J. Edgar. The film examines the compelling life of the first FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, portrayed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Law enforcement is a very underrated profession — so many have given so much. The dangers are always there and we’re thankful for the people who keep us safe. Embracing the idea of shooting a film about J. Edgar Hoover was quite an interesting project because he was such an interesting man and there’s always been a lot of discussion around him,” Mr. Eastwood said in his remarks before the premiere of the film.

In 2010, the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation donated over 5,000 items from Director Hoover's estate, including office desk, chair and telephone, presentation items, awards, photographs, correspondence, books, recordings of his speeches, and numerous other items that relate to his personal and professional life, including his tenure as director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972.

The National Law Enforcement Museum is the official repository of Mr. Hoover’s collection of personal effects, and select artifacts from the extensive collection were on display during the movie premiere. Guests were given a first-hand glimpse of such items as Director Hoover’s desk and desk accessories; original photographs from his childhood, as well as his years as FBI Director; and handwritten notes from his days as a law student at George Washington University.

The National Law Enforcement Museum will include the J. Edgar Hoover Research Center, made possible through a generous donation from the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation.

“Many Americans probably do not know that it was Mr. Hoover who required FBI agents to advise criminal suspects of their constitutional rights prior to arrest —15 years before the Supreme Court required Miranda warnings. He also instituted many other innovations including a centralized fingerprint file, forensics laboratories, a national compilation of crime statistics, and the FBI National Academy to increase effectiveness of state and local law enforcement,” Mr. Floyd stated as he addressed the audience before the film.

Read the full press release from the event at: http://www.nleomf.org/newsroom/news-releases/museum/the-national-law-enforcement-1.html
All photos from the event are available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nleomf/sets/72157627966283637/

Law Enforcement Museum Loans Artifact to Local Museum

Earlier this year, the National Law Enforcement Museum signed its first-ever loan agreement with another museum. The Newseum, located in downtown Washington, D.C., is exhibiting a trial pass issued to J. Edgar Hoover to attend the 1942 trial of Nazi saboteurs who were part of a spy ring that was investigated and caught under Hoover's supervision by the FBI that year. The trial pass is a part of the larger Hoover Collection, which contains over 5,000 objects from the estate of J. Edgar Hoover. This is a milestone of sorts for the Museum. When a new museum loans artifacts to another museum, the new museum begins to establish its identity in the larger community of museums and makes the artifacts accessible to a wider audience.

Trial pass for J. Edgar Hoover, 1942. 2010.11. Collection of the National Law Enforcement Museum, Washington, D.C.

The National Law Enforcement Museum is a work still in progress. The building is designed but not yet built; the exhibits have been planned but not yet constructed. The artifact collections, however, are tangible and real and inform the design, content, and programming of what the Museum will soon become. The collections of the Museum currently number almost 15,000 objects, documents, and photographs. By the time the Museum opens its doors in late 2013, the collections will be accessible to the public in a number of ways, including exhibits, publications, behind-the-scenes tours, and other educational programs.

The collections of the Museum are unique in that that they tell the national story of American law enforcement. In the United States, law enforcement is not a nationalized institution, and the agencies that make up law enforcement span the local, state, and federal continuum. The National Law Enforcement Museum will be the first place for other educational institutions, academicians, and researchers to come to learn the larger, national history of American law enforcement. Having Museum artifacts on exhibit in other museums serves the community by increasing public access to and awareness of law enforcement’s legacy. Loaning artifacts also serves to build collaborative partnerships with museums across the country.

Artifact Detective: Lead Figurines

This Artifact Detective post was contributed by Sarah Dieter, Collections Management Intern.

Please help us uncover some of the stories behind our objects. Leave a comment with anything you may know about the featured item. We welcome all information, and we’d appreciate sources and citations when possible. Thanks!

What we know:
Two of the figurines are holding pistols and two are holding Tommy guns.
All four figurines are in excellent condition and were purchased together.

Toys, lead figurines of police officers holding pistol and Tommy gun, man in beige holding pistol, man in gray holding Tommy gun, unknown date. 2006.423.1-4. Collection of the NLEM, Washington, DC.

What we want to know:
When were these toys produced and by whom?
Were the figurines originally sold all together or separately?
Were more figurines originally part of this set?
Are these characters from a movie or television show? If so, which one?
What kinds of lessons do you think someone might learn from playing with these figurines?

If you have any information about this object or own an object similar to this, leave us a comment!

Seeing Double for Thanksgiving

With the winter holidays upon us, we thought we’d take a look at the collection to see what we had related to law enforcement and Thanksgiving.

Photo, stereoview, 1938. 2006.369.1. Collection of the NLEM, Washington, DC.

The photograph is a 1938 stereo photograph, made to be looked at with a viewer for a three-dimensional effect. The photo was taken at the 1938 Boston Thanksgiving Day parade on Beacon Street. The white building wing peeking out of the right side of the images is the Boston State House annex that dates from 1917. The men who are holding the tether lines are dressed either as convicts (in striped clothing) or as law enforcement officers (in keystone cops helmets).

While we don’t yet know what organization sponsored this parade, it appears to be in keeping with New York’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. We have been able to find one other photograph of what appears to be the same balloon in the New York Macy’s parade from the year before (1937) at the Corbis collection. The tether holders in that photograph are dressed as keystone cops.

If you have any information on this parade, we would love to hear from you in the comments below.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

A Police Matron from Davenport, Iowa

This article is contributed by one of our summer interns, Elena DiGrado, who worked on this newest addition to our collection.

When I picture a police matron in the early 20th century, I imagine the corrupt Matron “Mama” Morton from the hit Broadway play, “Chicago.” Her character represents our modern stereotype of a woman in her profession. Matron “Mama” Morton receives bribes from the young murderesses of Cook County Jail in exchange for contraband (i.e., cigarettes and liquor) and legal assistance during their trials. In her solo performance, she expresses her motto explicitly, singing, “When you’re good to Mama, Mama’s good to you.” Although “Mama” Morton entertains audiences, she represents a false conception of early 20th century police matrons.

The National Law Enforcement Museum recently acquired a new collection that focuses on the life of Davenport, Iowa’s, Matron Sarah “Sadie” Hill. The Museum plans to use the collection to reconcile the public’s perceptions (or misconceptions) of police matrons’ roles in American society with who they actually were. The collection includes several newspaper articles detailing her positive role as the city matron and some of her personal items, such as her black shawl, bonnet, and hand mirror, along with nine photographs and a bundle of hair from an unknown person. Matron Hill was a member of a national organization called the Western Police Matron Association, and the collection also contains ribbons from annual conferences, including the one held during the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.

Bonnet, hand mirror, photograph, newspaper articles, and ribbons, Hill Collection. 2010.29.4a, 6, 13, 1, 11. Collection of the NLEM, Washington, D.C.

The position of the police matron began in the 1890s and quickly became the trend for major cities in America. Right before the turn of the 20th century, law enforcement in America found themselves in desperate need of assistance with social problems they were expected to handle, in addition to crime. As cities urbanized, more and more young women lived without the protection and support of families and in jeopardy of descending into the sway of prostitution in local brothels. Prior to police matrons, male officers handled arresting women and were confounded by the abandoned children, elderly, and homeless people on the streets who all needed the basic necessities of life, such as food, clean water, and shelter. These individuals did not break the law, and people argued that they did not belong in jail with law breakers because of their unfortunate circumstances. The “Police Matron” became the chosen solution to these problems. These women first dealt with female prisoners, but they soon extended out to serve as social worker, counselor, and welfare officer as needed.

According to Sharon E. Wood’s The Freedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City, Sarah Hill was the second matron appointed by Davenport and was assigned to her position in 1893. She dedicated her life and service to the protection of those who could not help themselves from the perils of urban decay. This new collection of Matron Hill’s effects gives evidence of how one police matron exemplified the ideas behind NLEM’s mission statement. Helping abandoned women, old people, children, and the homeless, her acts created a positive relationship between law enforcement and the public. Also, through the duties she performed, she successfully contributed to a safer society and served to uphold the democratic ideals of the U.S. Constitution.

With this collection, researchers can further investigate the role of police matrons in American history and how their involvement established the role of women in the law enforcement field. Matron Hill’s story provides another view of what I once thought was the role of a matron, and I look forward to delving further into her life and her service to the citizens of Davenport, Iowa.

CSI: Washington, D.C.

No, there’s not a new version of the hit T.V. show in the works, although I think our nation’s capital would make a great setting. The National Law Enforcement Museum is committed to exploring all aspects of law enforcement, and right now, one of the areas we’re focusing on is forensics.

I’ve written in the past about our “What’s in the Evidence?” program which is currently in beta testing. But there’s another new program in the works: an online, forensics-based activity that will allow students in grades six through eight to take a case, analyze the evidence, and then present the evidence in court, possibly leading to a conviction.

Students doing the online activity will use science reasoning skills as they work on the case. And in contrast to shows like “CSI,” “Cold Case,” or “NCIS,” they’ll have the opportunity to see how evidence is used throughout the whole law enforcement system. They’ll also get to see that not all evidence is as conclusive as the TV shows make it seem, hopefully preparing students to be more informed jurors when they get older.

We’ll be consulting closely with experts in the field as we continue to develop the program so that our activity is more authentic than many of the TV shows currently airing. But I’m curious—have you ever watched one of the forensics-themed shows and wondered whether some aspect or technique they’ve used is authentic? What aspect of forensic science fascinates you the most? If you could incorporate any type of forensic science into an activity like this, which types would you choose to feature?

Why Should School Resource Officers Know about Domestic Violence?

As I prepare to attend and present at the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) annual conference in August, I will be connecting domestic violence with what School Resource Officers (SROs) do in order to keep schools safe. Is there a relationship, and if so, what is it?

A School Resource Officer is a sworn local law enforcement officer, who is responsible for providing students a safe and comfortable environment at school. An SRO works as a link between law enforcement and the school, school administration, teachers, parents, and most important, students.

Between 3.3 million and 10 million children witness domestic violence annually (Lawrence, 2002, pg 5). SROs interact with children and youth on a daily basis, which creates a direct link to why SROs should be familiar with what domestic violence is and how it affects children, especially when they are at school. In addition, because witnessing violence at home can lead to children acting out or even becoming violent in school, SROs have a duty to keep schools safe and free from any violence.

Children living in households where domestic violence is present may hear or see violence and threats. They may also see the aftermath of violence: broken furniture, bruises on their mother, their father being taken away by the police (I am using a male-on-female example here because the vast majority of cases are male perpetrated.) Sometimes, to protect their mother, children place themselves in harm’s way. Witnessing this violence increases the risks of emotional and behavioral problems in a child.

When children witness domestic violence at home, the emotions and behavioral problems are likely to be brought to school. Some signs that children may be living in a domestic violence household are physical complaints (stomachache or headache), tiredness (because of lack of sleep from staying up because of the violence), sadness, low self-esteem, difficulty paying attention in class, outbursts of anger, and bullying and aggression. Because SROs interact with students every day, they need to know these signs so that they can help and support the student.

So, what are some of the things that an SRO (or any school personnel) can do to help? First, the student needs to know about the SRO’s limits of confidentiality, because an SRO is a mandated reporter (someone who has to report to family services if they suspect child abuse or neglect). Then, the most important thing someone can do is listen. Let the student tell his or her story, but at the same time, don’t pressure the student to talk. The SRO should assure the student that they believe her or him, and validate the student’s feelings. Afterward, the SRO should check with the student’s teachers and see how he or she is doing in class, and then collaborate with the school social worker or counselor on next steps to get the child help.

Domestic violence requires intervention from a network of people. School Resource Officers are an important part of that network, because they are at schools to keep the students and the schools safe. School may be the only place many child witnesses have to be free of violence.

And sometimes, a trusted adult who will listen to a child is the first step for the child to get help.