Catalog Level
Items (Cataloging Focus)

Title Proper/Title Text
Padiglione dell'Opera Pia Materna delle incubratrici per bambini vicino al Palazzo dell'Inghilterra

Name of Publisher/Creator Identity
Società Tipografico-Editrice Nazionale (S. T. E. N.)

Date of Publication/Creation Date
1911 ca.

Inscription Language
Italian (Language)

Related Built Environment Objects

• Pavilion of the Charitable Institution of Infant Incubators

Descriptive Note Text

This black-and-white photo postcard advertizes the incubator that inventor Alexandre Lion patented in 1889. The Lion incubator was a high point in technology at the end of the 19th century. An automatically regulated heating system was housed in an attractive cabinet, and the incubator pulled outside air into its system, adding ventilation to the basic function of warming reducing the need of time-consuming and skilled care.  However, even by 1911 the Lion incubator was expensive, which limited its availability. Charities and municipal government were early purchasers of the incubators, making them available to infants in need. In Nice, Lion founded a philanthropical organization that he called the Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants (the Maternal Charity of Infant Incubators). The goal of this organization was to establish institutes all over France where parents could bring their preterm infants if they were poor, without having to pay for their care. 

Current Repository/Geographic Location
Cristina Della Coletta Private Collection (San Diego, USA)

Current Repository Numbers
CDC-PC-PCII-0001