A Few Cell-fies for the Files

   Maybe it’s just coincidence, or bad luck, hopefully not foreboding, but in 2019, I found myself in jail – often.  The Old Maricopa County Courthouse celebrates its 90th birthday this year, and to commemorate the occasion, Museum Pros was hired to install an exhibit in the Justice Museum on the 6th floor of the most stunning building in downtown Phoenix.  The Museum is housed in the historic cell block, which once was home to pretty notorious inmates including Winnie Ruth Judd, the “Trunk Murderess,” and Ernesto Miranda, of “you have the right to remain silent” fame.   While working there, I couldn’t help but snap a few cell-fies. 

Not to be outdone, another project also involved jail – this time in the City of Peoria, AZ.  The old jail building there, a simple and elegant example of WPA work from the 1930s, boasts two jail cells.  While evaluating and stabilizing collections on site, I had to try one out.  It’s not every day you get to share space of one of societies most forgotten citizens and share the haunting world of the incarcerated.  The United States has many prison museums, many doing amazing work in interpreting the complicated histories of these places.  Find one today and explore on your own. And while you’re there, but sure to snap a cell-fie or two of your own!