Some familiar faces are coming back to Leavenworth.
Beginning Saturday, a display at the First City Museum will illustrate the history of some of the former inmates of the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth.
“Mugged: A Rogue’s Gallery of Leavenworth Penitentiary Mug Shots,” will be on display in the First City Museum at 743 Delaware St.
The exhibit will consist of mug shots of some of the more infamous inmates at the penitentiary, including heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson and William “Big Bill” Haywood, a radical union leader. The exhibit will also feature other criminals incarcerated at the U.S.P.
The mug shots will be drawn from Federal Bureau of Prisons collection at the Central Region of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Though some famous faces will be shown, recognizability was not the main criteria in choosing which photos to show, according to Stephen Spence, archive specialist at NARA.
“We tried to keep it more anonymous,” he said. “If someone’s picture grabbed us, we’d scan it.”
According to Spence, the mug shots of the era have a “visually appealing” quality, and often the best photos are not the most famous people. He said one of the photos shows a man mostly unknown to history whose face was an “iconic” representation of mug shots.
The exhibit will also contain biographical information on the individual inmates. Spence said each of the faces has a story — although some of the stories are stranger than others.
Spence said the collection contains the picture of a man convicted of “adultery,” a felony at the time.
The summer-long process of sorting through records and pictures began when Spence and other staff members at NARA realized the appeal of the photos.
“We do hundreds of requests on those inmate files,” he said. “We would always show each other the mug shots.”
After coming up with the idea, Spence said the staff first narrowed their scope to the 15,000 mug shots from when the prison opened in 1895 to World War I. From there, he said the staff scanned 200 photos, eventually choosing 52 photos for the final exhibit.
The photos will also be divided into categories, with separate displays for thieves, violent criminals, the women incarcerated at the U.S.P and “degenerates,” who Spence said were often convicted of crimes that would seem less serious now.
According to Spence, NARA will be taking the exhibit to cities around the country.
The opening reception for “Mugged” will include a tour of the museum at 1:30 p.m., a presentation by Ken LaMaster, author of “U.S. Penitentiary: Images of America.”
At 2:45 p.m., visitors can catch a free ride to the Fred Harvey House.
Spence said the “Mugged” exhibit will be up in the museum until November.
Leavenworth, Kan. —
