W. VA. PENITENTIARY

Newspaper Articles

Penitentiary superindent answers corruption charges
Controversy over Penitentiary management in 1869; Superintendent answers charges
More from 1869: Former clerk rebuts Superintendent
A visit to the Penitentiary in 1879

Report on conditions in the West Virginia Penitentiary, from the Cincinnati Enquirer, 1886
Two-part article about the Pen from Register earlier in 1886
Part two of the above
Legislative hearing results from the Enquirer article, Feb. 1887
More hearings
Reportage on the Legislative hearing
More of the legislative hearing
A positive article from 1892.
Still another penitentiary expose, this from 1893.
Conditions in 1894
Letter to editor of Moundsville Echo about conditions, 1899. Colored Republic Club concerned with treatment of African-American prisoners.
Another letter to Echo, from 1900. The Captain of the Guards assaults newspaper staff

Warden's report from the 1916 biennial report of the State Board of Control. and part 2 of the same report

Sketch of Warden Joseph Z. Terrell from 1923

Excerpts from the nomination for the National Register of Historic Places, part 1, part 2, bibliography

Pictures

Tom F. Hebb, Tower No. 2, 1897
Main entrance ca. 1914
Cell Block, ca. 1914
South end of prison wall, ca. 1914
Dining room, ca. 1914
Chapel, ca. 1914
Men on the prison yard, ca. 1914
Front entrance, ca. 1916
Prison farm, ca. 1916
Band Concert, 1920s
Cell Block, 1910s
Chapel, 1910s
Coal Mine, ca.1920
Dining Room, ca. 1910
Farm Scene, ca. 1910
Front Entrance, 1920s
Front Entrance, ca. 1920
Front View from North, ca. 1910
Front View from the South, 1910s
Prisoners in the Yard, 1910s
Main Entrance, ca. 1910
Main Entrance, 1920s
Men on Yard, 1910s
North Wing, 1920s
Overall Factory, 1920s
Picnic, Female Convicts, ca. 1920
Truck and Trailer, 1910s
Cell, Women's Ward, 1920s
Aerial photo 1936: New wall under construction
From the top of Grave Creek Mound, 1999

WV Pen Tours, including a history and pictures
A letter from the warden in 1905concerning the relative economies of hanging vs. the electric chair.
The history of capital punishment in West Virginia "Thy Brother's Blood" by Stan Bumgardner and Christine Kreiser.