Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site

The Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site (ESPHS) will use the professional services of a conservation firm to treat, rehouse, and digitize a collection of 3,069 silver gelatin images of inmates from the early twentieth century, including 1,000 of which are bound together in a book and 2,069 additional photos mounted on loose leaves of paper. Once conserved, the images will be used in exhibitions and other programming efforts at ESPHS, and to promote civic engagement by encouraging visitors to contemplate and discuss the role of prisons across place and time. The digital images will be shared on the ESPHS website and through social media, making them broadly accessible to the public.