Details
Creator Akin, James, ca. 1773-1846.
Title Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects illustrated. [graphic] : The iron gag of its natural size locked upon Mathias Maccumsey, a convict from Lancaster County sentenced to the cells for manslaughter, who dies with it in his mouth, in the Eastern State Penitentiary , of Pennsylvania, June 1833. By James Akin no. 18 Prune Street Philadelphia. Taken from Mcelwee's detailed statements.
Publisher Philadelphia: James Akin
Date c1835
Physical Description 1 print: lithograph mounted on paper; 23 x 14 cm.(9.25 x 5.25 in.)
Description Illustrated handbill containing an image of the "iron gag," an iron palet placed over the tongue and chained around the jaw. Also contains a paragraph of text calling for the abolition of the device after condemning its use on the convict "for merely speaking to a fellow prisoner" as antithetical to the "liberty, equality, and a just enjoyment of the rights" espoused by the people." Maccumsey was a 44 year old man serving his second of twelve years for murder when punished with the iron gag after continually talking to inmates, an infraction at the prison founded upon Quaker principles of solitude and silence as measures for reform.
Is referenced by Reilly 1835-4
Notes Not in Wainwright.
Thomas McElwee was a member of the legislative investigative committee monitoring Eastern State Penitentiary who wrote the critical "A Concise History of the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania :...." (Philadelphia, 1835).
Philadelphia on Stone
POSP 115
Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Ba 263 Ak 53
Subject Eastern State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania.
Punishment devices -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Genre Lithographs -- 1830-1840.
Handbills -- 1840-1840.
Location Historical Society of Pennsylvania | HSP Ba 263 Ak 53