Membership certificate for the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons containing a bust-length portrait vignette of "Bishop White Presdt. 50 Years" and a "bird's-eye view of the Building's-Grounds and Environs" of Eastern State Penitentiary. Filigree surrounds the oval-framed portrait. View shows the prison built 1823-1836 after the designs of John Haviland at 2101-2199 Fairmount Avenue. Individuals walk and a horse-drawn wagon travel within the prison grounds that are surrounded by a brick wall with Gothic-style entrance gate. The grounds include garden plots. Pedestrians, including a man pushing a hand-cart, a carriage, and men on horseback travel in the streets outside of the penitentiary. Undeveloped land and cityscape, including Girard College, border the prison building. Also includes a descriptive paragraph about "This institution known as Cherry Hill State Prison 'At Philadelphia as the Model Prison of' The Pennsylvania System of Prison Discipline' or "Separate System' ..." Text describes the Separate System of incarceration where "each convict occupies a single cell or workshop" in addition to the construction, dimensions, and utilities of the building, including "seven corridors of cells," gas, "heat by hot water," and "water in each cell.", Issued to John McAlister [sic] Jr. on November 11, 1856. Signed by John B. Lytle, Secy. and James J. Barclay, Presdt., Attributed to James Queen., Contains blindstamp of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 597, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Historical Society of Pennsylvania:, Free Library of Philadelphia: Oversize Philadelphiana - Societies, Certificates, Probably originally part of a McAllister scrapbook.
Creator
Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
Date
[ca. 1855]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W396 [P.2214]
View showing the 300 block of Walnut street including the former residence of Bishop William White built 1786-1787 (309 Walnut) and the former residence, built 1746, and adjoining law office of attorney Charles Chauncey (307 and 305 Walnut). Chauncey residence tenanted by Petry Brothers' restaurant. View also shows construction debris in the foreground., Title and photographer's imprint from Poulson inscription on mount., Date inscribed on photograph., Inscribed on recto of photograph: 1; 2; 3., Originally part of a series of eleven scrapbooks compiled by Philadelphia antiquarian Charles A. Poulson in the late 1850s entitled "Illustrations of Philadelphia" volume 11, page 87. The scrapbooks contained approximately 120 photographs by Philadelphia painter and pioneer photographer Richards of 18th-century public, commercial, and residential buildings in the city of Philadelphia commissioned by Poulson to document the vanishing architectural landscape, Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited.
Creator
Richards, F. De B. (Frederick De Bourg), photographer
Date
June 1859
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Richards - Residences - W [(11)2526.F.87(Poulson)]
