ARS Image Archive

Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. “HIV/AIDS services for women in prison. Justice Now!!! Verso: ACT UP.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1996 – 1997. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-1c84-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Incarcerated women have historically been even more neglected than their male counterparts, denied not only health services such as those demanded above, but also things necessary to basic hygiene and reproductive health, such as showers and menstrual products. They have also historically been denied even the meager educational opportunities offered to incarcerated men, trained instead in vocational programs such as sewing and hairstyling.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Female Convicts, Sing Sing Prison.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 186. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-79a7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “The Tombs Prison — midnight scene — the matron going the rounds.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1874. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-2787-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division, The New York Public Library. “Women’s House of Detention” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1935 – 1943. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/77782ee0-d56d-0131-f1ac-58d385a7bbd0

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “A young girl on West 3rd Street delivering flowers made at home during school hours” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1907 – 1933. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-4e05-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “The barbed-wire enclosed camp for migratory workers at the Cannon [Canning] Company of Bridgeville, Delaware.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1940. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-f92e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Capitalism as prison. Migratory laborers have been worked, historically and currently, in conditions as poor as have been seen since slavery was legal outside of prisons. Here, workers are physically prevented from leaving by a barbed wire fence.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Picking cotton.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-4905-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Female slaves and a child picking cotton. Though the emancipation proclamation “freed” slaves, the realities of daily life did not change radically, as slavery gave way to sharecropping and Jim Crow. As soon as one form of oppression dies, another rises to take its place.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Lint Room.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1865. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e8-8999-d471-e040-e00a180654d7

Torturing women in prison Vote against the government. [London: The National Women’s Social and Political Union, 190- printed by David Allen & Sons Lo] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/99402708/>.

Women in institutions have long been subjected to what is politely referred to as “experimentation”, universally exploitative and at worst downright torturous. Many women of color were institutionalized and subsequently subjected to sterilization, lobotomies, and worse, without their consent and sometimes without their knowledge. These abuses occurred in prisons and mental institutions, but also in hospitals.

Amherst Cultural Workers Collective, Sponsor/Advertiser. What Betsy Ross did as an act of freedom is now being done behind bars by women in prison: 1976: what are we celebrating?. 1976. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/2015649199/>.

Bain News Service, Publisher. Women’s Trade Union League, Labor Parade ’08. 9/7/08 date created or published later by Bain. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2004002144/>.

United States Office Of War Information, photographer by Rosener, Ann. Production. Aircraft engines. Reconditioning used spark plugs for reuse in testing airplane motors, Mighnon Gunn operates this small testing machine with speed and precision although she was new to the job two months ago. A former domestic worker, this young woman is now a willing and efficient war worker, one of many women who are relieving labor shortages in war industries throughout the country. Melrose Park, Buick plant. July, 1942. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/oem2002004176/PP/>.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. “A pottery class.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1919. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-1d43-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. “A type that is passing.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1906. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-9e08-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. “Women often work in the fields.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1924. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-a1bb-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

See above. 80 years later, life has not changed much for black women in the south. Industry still depends on their (underpaid) labor. In the present day, the location and nature of the labor has largely shifted from field work to work in the service and caretaking industries, and to prison labor.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. "Sewing lesson in a Gloucester County school, Va." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1915. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-a024-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “In the Everglades needlework factory, San Juan, Puerto Rico.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-f969-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg General Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. “A sewing-school in the Sudan.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1897. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-bd61-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “African American woman operating a large piece of machinery.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1939 – 1945. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-fa4c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Negro women help beautify nation’s capital” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1939 – 1945. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-fa3e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. “Members of an industrial school, Chattaooga, Tenn.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1906. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-9e15-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

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