There are a surprising number of “eyewitnesses” to Eastern State Penitentiary’s history, but time is running out to preserve their memories.
Interviews with former inmates, guards, and staff are essential to understanding what day-to-day life was like at the prison. We have recorded the stories of some of these eyewitnesses, but more than one hundred remain.
Historians call the process of recording personal memories “oral history.” An Eastern State oral history project in 1992 recorded interviews with 55 former inmates, officers and staff members.
Former inmate N.P.* recorded his first impression of the cold, stone cellblocks. Former officer (and later Deputy Secretary of Corrections) Donald Vaughn talked about the relatively relaxed atmosphere inside the prison, and the way many of the staff and inmates preferred Eastern State to the places they wound up later.
The 1992 oral history interviews have provided a key resource for the research into Eastern State Penitentiary. The interviews have been featured in Eastern State exhibits about prison labor and the use of solitary confinement. More than thirty audio clips from the oral histories are incorporated into Eastern State’s current audio tour, The Voices of Eastern State Penitentiary.
There is a problem. The 1992 oral history program interviewed only a fraction of the men and women who remember the active Eastern State Penitentiary. Since then, we have met dozens upon dozens of former inmates, officers and staff members.
Many of their stories are incredible: former inmate W.S.* remembers pitching a knuckleball against professional baseball players visiting the prison; visitor E.D.* remembers coming to Eastern State as part of a wedding party.
We have compiled a list of more than one hundred men and women who have yet to be interviewed. Each interview will take several hours of preparation and filming. Then each interview will need to be transcribed and reviewed, so that the information is as accurate and accessible as possible.
The costs are daunting, and each year we lose some of our valuable eyewitnesses. After all, Eastern closed more than thirty-five years ago.
Thank you for making it possible for us to record the irreplaceable memories of these men and women! Our 2007 Annual Appeal raised nearly $34,000 for this project. An additional $42,000 in grants and contributions has come from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Independence Foundation, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, the Rural History Confederation, and four individual donors. Together, these funds are allowing us to accelerate our race against time to collect as many oral histories interviews as possible. We are continuing to pursue interviews that help us fill specific gaps in our knowledge of Eastern State. From 2007 to September 2010, we have collected 41 interviews.
We are always interested in hearing from people who lived or worked at the Penitentiary. Please contact Erica Harman at eh@EasternState.org or
(215) 236-5111 x23 if you or someone you know might be interested in participating in this project.
* Rights to identify names not yet secured.
