Joliet
Prison photograph collection, ca. 1889-1895
Wetmore,
S. W., photographer.
Descriptive Inventory for the Collection at
Chicago History Museum, Research Center
© Copyright 2014, Chicago Historical
Society, 1601 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60614-6038
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Joliet Prison photograph collection, ca. 1889-1895
Inclusive dates: ca. 1889-1895
Main entry: Wetmore, S. W., photographer.
Accession #: 1987.0129
Extent:
Call #: 1987.0129 PPL
43 photographic prints :
b&w ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller. Originals made by Wetmore.
ca.
140 photographic prints ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller. Copies by CHS from negatives.
Call #: 1987.0129 PGN-0054
140 negatives : glass
; 9 x 11 cm. (3 1/4 x 4 1/4 in.)
Restriction: Please consult
photoprints instead of glass negatives. To consult the glass negatives in this
collection in the Research Center it is necessary to make an advance
appointment (email: Research@chicagohistory.org ).
Summary: Glass negatives
and photoprints of Joliet Prison taken by the prison staff photographer, S.W.
Wetmore, and used in an illustrated lecture on prison reform. Subjects include
male and female prisoners, guards, interior and exterior of prison buildings,
prison yard and shops, cell blocks. Some images illustrate the Bertillon system
of analyzing human character.
Chicago
Historical Society (CHS) made b&w, 8 x 10 in. copies from nearly all of the
original negatives and filed them with the original photoprints received from
the donor. The original photoprints presumably were made by S.W. Wetmore from the
negatives soon after he took the photographs.
Copy
of one image online: http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/visuals/47V0570.htm
Provenance statement:
Gift of Estelle S. Burton, 1952 (1987.0129).
List of online catalog headings:
The
following entries for this collection were placed in the online catalog:
Subjects:
Illinois State Penitentiary (Joliet, Ill.)
Burton,
Frank A.--Portraits.
McClaughry, R. W. (Robert Wilson), 1839-1920--Portraits.
Neebe,
Oscar W., 1850-1916--Portraits.
Schwab,
Michael, 1853-1898--Portraits.
Fielden,
Samuel, 1847-1922--Portraits.
Prison
facilities--Illinois--Joliet--1890-1899
Prison
hospitals--Illinois--Joliet--1890-1899
Prison
reform--Illinois--Joliet--1890-1899
Prisoners--Illinois--Joliet--1890-1899
Bertillon system.
Guards--Illinois--Joliet--1890-1899
Chapels--Illinois--Joliet--1890-1899
Offices--Illinois--Joliet--1890-1899
Women--Illinois--Joliet--Work--1890-1899
Haymarket Anarchists Trial, Chicago, Ill., 1886.
Joliet
(Ill.)--Social conditions--1890-1899.
United
States--Illinois--Will County--Joliet.
Form/genre:
Portraits.
Montages.
Identification photographs.
Silver
gelatin prints.
Glass
negatives.
Storage designation:
Call #: 1987.0129 PGN-0054 Glass negatives (in 10 boxes: 4 x 5 in.)
140
negatives : glass ; 9 x 11 cm. (3 1/4 x 4 1/4 in.)
Call #: 1987.0129 PPL b&w photoprints (in 1 box: 8 x 10 in.)
43
photographic prints : b&w ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller.
Originals made by Wetmore.
ca. 140 photographic prints ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller. Copies by
CHS from negatives.
Container list of box and folder numbers
and titles:
Call #: 1987.0129 PPL b&w photoprints (in 1 box: 8 x 10 in.)
Box of photo lot contains:
43 photographic prints :
b&w ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller. Originals made by Wetmore.
ca.
140 photographic prints ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller. Copies by CHS from negatives.
The images are described in the list of
negatives below, except for these 4 photoprints for which there seem to be no
negatives available:
1. Five
women standing in prison, one with a broom (similar to box 3 folder 17)
2.
Three tiers of cells
3. Crowd
watching boxing match in prison yard
4.
Room outside chaplain's office
Call #: 1987.0129 PGN-0054 Glass negatives (in 10 boxes: 4 x 5 in.)
Negatives for which the box-lot above contains
original photoprints are labeled: (O)
Negatives for which CHS made copy
photoprints in the box-lot above are labeled: (C)
Box 1
of glass negatives:
Prisoners
- "mug shots"
Folders:
1 [Fielden, Schwab, Neebe - Haymarket
anarchists] (C)
2 [Fielden, Schwab, Neebe - Haymarket
anarchists] (C)
3 [Fielden, Schwab, Neebe - Haymarket
anarchists] - positive(C)
4 Mug shots(C)
5 Mug shots(C)
6 Mug shots(C)
7 Man before and after shave and haircut(C)
8 Mug shot with vital statistics, 1889(C)
9 Mug shot with vital statistics(C)
10 "A Type" prisoner(C)
11 Youth #19440 (C)
12 A convict (archetype created by superimposing
images of convicts) Bertillon system (C)
13 Chinese prisoners, 1890 (C)
14 Chinese prisoners (C)
15 Two Indians [prisoners] (C)
Box 2
1 Chained to the door (C)
2 Two men behind bars (C)
3 Man lying on floor behind bars (C)
4 Prison chapel (C)
5 Prison chapel (O/C)
6 Prisoners in chapel with new garments (O/C)
7 Prisoners in chapel with guards (C)
8 Prisoners dining hall (C)
9 Dining hall (O/C)
10 Prisoners dining hall (O/C)
11 Prisoners in dining hall (O/C)
12 Prisoners in musical group (C)
13 Prisoners punishment (C)
14 Prisoners graveyard "Last Resting Place"
(O/C)
15 Prisoner after committing suicide (C)
Box 3
1 Prisoners - new arrivals (C)
2 Prisoners exercising by the prison wall (O/C)
3 Prisoners marching by buildings (C)
4 Prisoners walking by trees (C)
5 Prisoner in doorway (C)
6 Prisoner workers in line (O/C)
7 Prisoners lined up in lockstep (C)
8 Prisoners entering prison in lockstep (C)
9 Prisoners in lockstep in yard (O/C)
10 Prisoners in lockstep in yard (C)
11 Prisoners marching in lockstep (O/C)
12 Prisoners lined up in lockstep (O/C)
13 Prisoners lined up in lockstep in winter "The
Old Line" (O/C)
14 Women prisoners sitting facing wall (C)
15 Women prisoners sewing (C)
16 Women prisoners and little girl (C)
17 Women's ward, women with brooms (O/C)
Box 4
1 Prisoners in sewing factory (O/C)
2 Prisoners in shoe factory (O/C)
3 Prisoners working in rock quarry (C)
4 Prisoners working in rock quarry (C)
5 Prisoners working in prison yard (C)
6 A trusty and wagon (O/C)
7 Prisoners carrying buckets (C)
8 Prisoner with horse hauling wood (C)
9 Underground cell (C)
10 3-tier cell block (C)
11 Prisoners on bunks in cell (C)
12 Cells, main area (C)
13 Hallway of solitary confinement (O/C)
14 Cell block, decorated for 4th of July? (O/C)
15 Cell door (C)
16 5-tier cell block and corridor (C)
Box 5
1 Bath tubs (C)
2 Coffee cups (C)
3 Kitchen, baking bread (O/C)
4 Kitchen, baking bread (O/C)
5 Tubs of ? (C)
6 Laundry (O/C)
7 Pharmacy (O/C)
8 Library (O/C)
9 Library (O/C)
10 Hospital (O/C)
11 Clothing department (O/C)
12 Conservatory with prisoner (C)
13 Conservatory with guard (C)
14 Guards demonstrating method of photographing
prisoners (O/C)
Box 6
1 Front of prison, wall, grounds (O/C)
2 Dining hall exterior (O/C)
3 Sidewalk by a wall (C)
4 Front of prison with lily pond (O/C)
5 Women around water supply? (O/C)
6 Corner of prison building (C)
7 View of prison (C)
8 View of prison (O/C)
9 Corner of prison wall, tower, guard (C)
10 Prison wall and street "West Side Hall"
(C)
11 Main entrance (C)
12 Hospital building (O/C)
13 Work shops (O/C)
Box 7
1 Warden McClaughry (C)
2 Mike Mooney (prisoner) (C)
3 Guard dressed in new garb (O/C)
4 Warden's office (O/C)
5 Hospital dining room (O/C)
6 Guards' room (C)
7 Guards at an entrance (C)
8 Guard and sentinel post (C)
9 The iron gates (C)
10 Miscellaneous - convict blanket and wall (C)
Box 8
Folders:
1-6 Bertillon system, demonstration
and examples of measuring prisoners:
6-different measurements
filing
12-different measurements
seated
measurements
photo of
drawing illustrating the system
standard
measurements
7 Christmas poster and decorations
8 Discharge list, 1885
9 Weapon display
10 Reward notice
11 Handcuff display
12 Punishment Record
13 Description of Convict
Box 9
Photos of drawings by prisoners?
1 Escape attempt, female convict
2 Escape attempt, female convict falling from
window
3 Cartoon "Phthisis Pulmonalis"
4 Cartoon "Packing the Baby"
5 Cartoon "The Contract-Prison-Labor
question..."
6 Prisoners
Photos
of paintings/drawings:
7 Days of slavery
8 Slavery human life cheap
9 Schooling
10 The Wedge
11 Live for reflections remorse
12 The stoning of Achron
13 Death of Cain
14 The Inquisition
15 The Roll Call at the Bastille
16 Story of Ben Hur
Box
10 - Negatives need conservation
1 Plan of the prison (2 plates stuck together)
(C)
2 Corridor of solitary confinement (emulsion
deteriorating) (C)
3 Prisoners in chapel (fading) (C)
4 Prisoner in graveyard (broken) (C)
5 Prisoners in graveyard (fading) (C)
6-8
Negatives stuck to old envelope (These were not copied by CHS).