[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia: 1904.

Sold

Hardcover. Oblong quarto. Measuring 12" x 10". Green cloth over stiff paper boards with "Photographs" stamped in gilt on the front board. Contains 51 sepia-toned or black and white silver gelatin photographs measuring approximately 7½" x 9½", without captions. Slight waviness, spotting, and edgewear else very good album with near fine photographs.

A presentation album belonging to William H. Moyer while he served as prison warden at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia in 1904. The album contains chilling photographs depicting scenes of the prison grounds, cellblock infrastructure, staff, interior subdivisions, and the inmate workforce clad in striped uniforms. The photographs document in clean and sharp detail all aspects of the facility, including a focus on its subsectors of prison labor such as farming, woodworking, masonry, and textiles. Also depicts interiors of the penitentiary, from the Warden's office, featuring his portrait boldly displayed with those of his predecessors, and the mess hall prepped for meal time; to views of inmates at Sunday school and church, baking in the kitchen, having their hair and beards trimmed, and the ominous prison graveyard. The final pages of the album contain formal portraits of Moyer and J. M. Nye, the prison's record clerk, and their wives, alongside a few snapshots of Moyer's personal life.

This album reinforced the facade of a well-run, upstanding prison and hardworking labor force which was, apparently, a complete fabrication, intentionally omitted Moyer's ongoing, cruel treatment of prisoners. Newspaper accounts revealed that, after serving 12 years as warden, he was asked to resign by the Department of Justice, following investigations into his brutal and inhumane treatment of inmates, which including chaining them to steam pipes, hanging them from walls and leaving sick men to die. Despite the findings, Moyer later found a new position as warden of the infamous Sing Sing prison in upstate New York.

An interesting and sobering visual account of the United States penal system at the the turn-of-the-century.


Item #438212

item image

Item #438212 [Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta. William H. MOYER.
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta
[Photo Album]: U.S. Federal Penitentiary Atlanta