Details
Creator Cowperthwaite, Samuel, artist
Contributor P.S. Duval & Co., printer.
Vaux, Richard, 1816-1895, copyright holder.
Poulson, Charles A. 1789-1866, collector.
Title The state penitentiary, for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. [graphic] : This institution known as "Cherry Hill State Prison" at Philadelphia, is the model prison of "The Pennsylvania System of Prison Discipline" or "Separate System" as it is called to distinguish it from "The Congregate." Each convict occupies a single cell or workshop, and is thus separated from all other convicts. The building was begun in 1822. The walls, 30 ft. high, 12 ft. thick at base, 2 ft. 9 in: at top, enclose a square plot of ten acres. There are 7 corridors of cells, capable of receiving 500 convicts. The average number confined annually is less than 300. Some cells are 11ft. 9 in. by 7 ft. 6 in. with yards attached, 15 ft. by 8 ft. Others are double this size, all lighted and warmed and ventilated.-Gas is introduced into the corridors. Heat by hot water thro' pipes. Water in each cell and other conveniences. The above is a bird's eye view of the buildings_ grounds and environs. / From a drawing by convict No. 2954.
Publisher Philadelphia: P. S. Duval & Co
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1855
Date c1855
Physical Description 1 print: lithograph; 17 x 25 cm. (6.5 x 10 in.)
Description Bird's eye view of the prison built 1823-1836 after the designs of John Haviland at 2101-2199 Fairmount Avenue. Shows the prison designed with radial corridors, courtyards, and a Gothic-style entranceway and outer wall. A horse-drawn wagon is visible within, and another, probably a paddy wagon, arrives in front of the prison complex. Men on horseback, possibly guards, accompany the arriving wagon and a few pedestrians walk nearby in the street and on the sidewalk. Cityscape, including Girard College, is visible in the background. View also includes clusters of trees surrounding the prison and as part of the outer lying landscape.
Is referenced by Wainwright 401
Notes Copyrighted by Richard Vaux. Vaux served as President of the Board of Inspectors and authored Brief sketch of the origin and history of the State Penitentiary for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1872).
Poulson inscription on recto: April 1856.
Philadelphia on Stone
POS 750
Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania:
Free Library of Philadelphia: Castner 19:17
Biographical / historical note Samuel Cowperthwaite, a member of the Society of Friends and umbrella maker by trader, was convicted of manslaughter in Philadelphia on May 27, 1848. Pardoned on August 7, 1849, he was sent to Eastern State again for murder on December 3, 1852. He served nearly eight years and was released on November 3, 1860. Cowperthaite was a weaver in prison. He was described by the prison chaplain as part of the "wowdy clubs of Skinners," with a the prevailing vice of intemperance and with a predominant passion for destructiveness. See N. K. Teeters & John D. Shearer, "The Prison at Philadelphia: Cherry Hill" (N.Y.: Columbia University Press for Temple University Publications, 1957).
Subject Eastern State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania.
Prisons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Carts & wagons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Genre Lithographs -- 1850-1860.
Bird's eye views -- 1850-1860.
Printer Vaux, Richard, 1816-1895, copyright holder.
Provenance Poulson, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1789-1866, collector.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| W401 [P.2216]
Accession number P.2216