by Hans Johnson

The history of incubators for the care of prematurely born infants is a fascinating one. Perhaps no man had a greater impact on the innovation and popularity of this nascent medical technology than Dr. Martin Couney (pictured at right at the Pan-American Exhibition at Buffalo, N.Y. in 1901).

At a time when around a third of these babies would die, he brought incubators to be displayed at fairs, exhibitions, and amusement parks, charging the parents not a penny,  but relying on ticket sales for funds. After a brief time in Berlin in 1896, he came to America, making a big splash at Luna Park on Coney Island.

Among attractions like sword swallowers, strongmen, and bearded ladies, you would see a banner declaring: “All the World Loves a Baby” with a barker beckoning passers-by to see the babies through the glass walls of each compartment. (One of those barkers was a young Englishman named Archibald Leach who would become movie star Cary Grant.) Despite the surrounding atmosphere, within these mini-hospitals the nurses were strictly professional.

As controversial as this enterprise was, its success was inarguable. One of the earliest of the many thousands saved was Dr. Couney’s daughter Hildegarde, who became his assistant. You can see the story here of how one woman’s silver cup led to the discovery that she was one of those babies, at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.

See this video from the Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum:

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[HT: TheBlaze]