Hand-drawn chess board made by Herman Wallace while incarcerated
date: label: Date
content: after 1972
name: label: Created by
content: Herman Wallace, American, 1941 - 2013
label: Subject of
content: Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, American, founded 1835
notes: label: Caption
content: Wallace was an avid chess player. The collection includes homemade and mass produced chess boards and pieces. He wrote that he saw the game as a powerful humanizing force which helped him and fellow inmates use their minds towards a positive and productive pursuit. Wallace used the game to strategically inspire camaraderie, eliminate violence, and establish a network of empowerment, entirely lacking in an environment purposefully inhumane and hopeless.
label: Description
content: A hand-drawn paper chess board (a), the two-page contextual story of “The Chess Tournament” (b) and (c), created by Herman Wallace while incarcerated at Angola Prison. The black-and-white shaded chess board (a), sketched on a large white paper, features a handwritten number for each of the 64 squares drawn. The first page of "The Chess Tournament" (b), 132 and 133, printed with black text across two columns, outlines the results of Herman’s 34 cent chess tournament. The second page (b), 134, concludes the thoughts from the first page, with a black-and-white graphic design collage depicting two hands shaking and a young man with his head held up, surrounded by various chunks of sentences. The pages were printed on January 24th 2003.
place: label: Place used
content: Angola, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: American South
label: Topic
content: Communities
label: Topic
content: Men
label: Topic
content: Mental health
label: Topic
content: Prisons
label: Topic
content: Recreation
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Collection title
content: Herman Wallace Archival Collection
label: Classification
content: Toys and Games
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Maria Hinds
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: A2018.36.1.12.2abc
objectType: label: Type
content: chess sets
label: Type
content: make-dos
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: No Known Copyright Restrictions
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: (a): graphite on paper (fiber product)
label: Medium
content: (b), (c): ink paper (fiber product)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (a): 8 7/16 × 1 1/8 in. (21.5 × 2.8 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: L x W (b): 8 × 11 in. (20.3 × 27.9 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: L x W (c): 8 × 11 in. (20.3 × 27.9 cm)