Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-10-07
PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY.
HOW Convicts' Pictures are Taken and
Preserved at Joiiet-A Great Aid in
Recapturing Escaped Prisoners.


In the center of the great prison ward.
writes Joliet correspondent of the ST.
Louis Gto6e- Democrat. stands peculiar
iy-shaped frame building with a white
roof, an object of much curiosity to
prison visitors, who ask to know what
the place is used for.
This building contains two rooms. the
front one being used as a loafing place
for extra guards while off dnty. It's
walls are completely covered with q
medley OF illustrations, thousands of
them, that have been cut from sueh
papers and periodicals as Puck. The
Judge. Ha7per's and LeSlie's. and other
Journals. The clippings are neatly cut
and pasted to the wall, by an ingenious
little negro convict. who has CHARGE of
the place in ..trusty' A door in one
corner leads to another room on the
north--this room has high, bare. white
walls, excepting an immense skylirht.
which covers one-half of the ceiling.
This is the prison Photographic
studio. wherein are registered the form
and features of every prisoner that IS
sent to the Joliet prison, no matter
what be his degree of crime. In this
room he must take his place before the
lightning camera of the prison artist.
The room is fitted up with screens and
curtains for rejecting the light down
upon chair, which is fastened solidlv
to- the floor directly beneath the sky-
fight. The rays of light are so strong
That, should prisoner prove unruly
during the operation of having his pic
lure taken, the artist, at a favorable
moment, can catch the truthful express
sion of the mans features in the ht,h.
dredth part of second by simply pres-
, sing button attached to the camera.
which loosens the drop-shutter, causing
1t to flash across the lens. The result Is
an instantaneous portrait S. w. Wet
| more, assistant clerk of the prison. is
the photographer who takes the convict
pictures, and SO far as can be ascertain
ed he enjoys the distinction of being the
| only exclusive prison photographer in
the world. The authorities of several
| other prisons in this country have re-
Gently commenced photographing their
prisoners, but call in an outside photo
grapher to take the pictures On Jan.
l, 1854, Warden McClaughry common
ced having the pictures of all new arri-
walls taken, in order to make the prison
records more complete, and to furnish
a reliable method for the future identi-
tication of professional criminals and
escaped convicts.
] The process in use at the prison is the
best that science has yet invented in
modern photography. The wet-plate
process is too slow and a thing of the
past, and so are dry-plates, so far as
prison photography is concerned. The
| Eastman paper negative and roller
holder process is used exclusively at the
| prison. The roll of paper is prepared
IN the same manner as glass dry-plate
II. G., the gelatine silver emulsion is
| spread on the paper. The roll is then
| placed IN holder with q winding KEY
at one end and an empty spool to re-
ceiye the exposed paper at the other end
OF the holder, the paper first passing
behind the lens, and. as each picture IS
taken, is wound on the empty spool. In
this way one roll of Eastman's paper
answers the purpose of ninety-eirbt
glass dry-plates, 4x5 inches in size, for
making cabinet pictures or, in other
words. the artist can make the mega
tives of ninety-eight people in success
| sion without once leaving the side of
his camera. The paper is then cut into
the right lengths, developed, fixed, and
! printed from. just the same as dry
| plate, but the paper is oiled after devei
opment, to render it transparent.
The Photographic dark room at the
prison IS situated in the wardens house,
where the convict negatives are careful
ly filed away, and indexed. Before
Hing two prints are made from each
negative. One copy is given to the re-
ceiying and discharging officer of the
prison, for the purpose of identification,
and the other is placed in the photo
| graph cabinet in the warden's office.
which already contains nearly two
thousand conyicts' portraits. In case of
nm escape the negative of the fugitive is
at once hunted up, and in few hours
time several hundred copies of the
mans photograph will be sent broad
cast through the mails for his re-
| capture.
A quick way of duplicating the photo
graphs now in use at the prison is by
the bromide of silver paper process No
| sunlight is needed-the printing is done
| by gas-jet in the darkroom print
is then developed and fixed In this
manner five hundred copies can be
made from a single negative in one
| dav.
I William Pile escaped from prison two
years ago. He kept in the country,
| stunning towns and highways until he
had been gone for several weeks, finally
| hiring out as q farm hand way down in
Central Illinois. One day, soon after
his employer sent him to town after
| 1ao1 nf L.
on the station agent for the tile. Pile
went to the station and presented his
order, but the moment the station
agent laid his eyes upon the man he
thought of a photograph of an escaped
convict he had received several weeks
before. He took the picture from his
pocket and it fitted Pile exactly. The
| agent had Pile arrested and returned to
| Joliet, receiving the reward offered for
| his recapture. This was the first town
| Pile had entered since his flight from
| the prison.
1t was your correspondents good for
| tune to visit the prison on recent date
while the prison artist was engaged in
taking the pictures of 152 new arrivals,
| --convicts who had arrived during july
and August and of witnessing the
modus operandi of reproducing their
"mugs' on paper Everything was in
readiness at $50 A. nj. The artist
handed a list of names to guard and
requested him to bring in gang of
thirty or forty new convicts from the
chair-shop. The officer soon had the
raw recruits in line and marched them
across the yard to the gallery, where
they were seated on bench along the
wall in the outer room. Capt. Luke,
the receiving officer, then took the list of
names, and entering the operating-room
where all was ready, the camera and
chair in position-ca out the name
of the first man on the list, and the
/ guard picking out that man hustled him
into the room.
''Sit right down here. What's yer
name? What's yer register numberq
See that little red star on the wall?
Place yer eyes on that and don't move
till l tell yer-hold up that head lit
tie"
While this volley was being fired into
the ears of the trembling convict, the
captain grabbed the man by the
shoulders squared him back in the
chair. yanked his head around in the
direction of the star on the wall, chuck
ed him under the chin to elevate his
head, and then pulling around q wood