canary in a coal mine (1915)

[Ben Zimmer]

My latest Wall St. Journal column looks at the history of the "canary
in a coal mine" metaphor:

http://bit.ly/canarybz

Despite the fact that the expression has already achieved cliche
status, OED has missed out on it entirely, as the "canary" entry is
early in the alphabet and hasn't been fully updated since the 19th
century. (The entry also misses out on "canary" = 'informer', in HDAS
from 1929.)

In any case, as I mentioned in the column, I've found the metaphorical
usage back to 1915, in a newspaper article quoting a circular from the
Chautauqua traveling lecture circuit:

---
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063758/1915-07-16/ed-1/seq-4/
_Herald and News_ (Newberry, S.C.), July 16, 1915, p. 4, col. 3
Then did you ever read that little story about the canary bird in the
coal mine. It is a pretty little story and very appropriate at this
time. I found it on one of the circulars boosting the chautauqua which
is to be held in Newberry the latter part of this month. There is a
picture of the canary bird in a cage singing for dear life and the
miners working just like work was a real pleasure. And then on the
next page are the following paragraphs which I think are good and are
worth printing. [...]
A Canary Bird in a Coal Mine
There's a Reason for It -- Canary birds are placed in coal mines to
protect the lives of the miners. If the atmosphere becomes foul, the
canary stops singing and begins to show unmistakable signs of
distress. Then the miners know the atmosphere must be changed quickly
or they must get out.
Chautauqua versus Canary. A chautauqua is to a town what a canary is
to a coal mine. If the intellectual and moral atmosphere of this town
is such that a chautauqua can't live in it, then we must change the
atmosphere or get out.
---

It's possible that the original circular still survives in Chautauqua
archives somewhere, e.g.:

http://www.ciweb.org/education-archives
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/tc/

Around the same time, Chautauqua's competitors on the Lyceum circuit
were using the metaphor in a similar way:

---
http://books.google.com/books?id=EDUcAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA4-PA31
_The Lyceum Magazine_, Vol. 27, Oct. 1917, p. 31, col. 3
"Some Copy for Lyceum Course Advertising"
Keep the Canaries Singing
Down in the Allegheny coal mines they keep canary birds. As long as
the birds sing and live, the air in the mine is good. If the bird
quits singing something is wrong. If the bird dies, the miners know
the air is bad and they must either purify it or get out to save their
own lives.
Our Lyceum Course is a canary bird in the community coal mine. Our
churches and schools are canary birds. When any of them get sick, and
die something is wrong in our community atmosphere. We must purify it
or suffer.
That is why we are asking you to buy a Lyceum Course Season Ticket.
Help keep the air right here and the canary birds singing.
---

Not sure if the Lyceum crowd borrowed it from the Chautauquans or vice
versa. Either way, the early examples are strikingly similar to Kurt
Vonnegut's later use:

---
Kurt Vonnegut, _Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine_, June 22, 1969, p. 44, col. 1
[Text of a speech delivered to a meeting of the American Association
of Physics Teachers, Feb. 5, 1969]
I sometimes wondered what the use of any of the arts was with the
possible exception of interior decoration. The best thing I could come
up with was what I call the canary in the coal mine theory of the
arts. This theory says that artists are useful to society because they
are so sensitive. They are super-sensitive. They keel over like
canaries in poison coal mines long before more robust types realize
that there is any danger whatsoever.
---

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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