Eastern State Penitentiary

08/26/2026

Come with us into the Eastern State Penitentiary archive room as we explore wooden dog carvings made by people incarcerated at the prison 🐕🪵 Prisoner-made wood carvings are a common item in our archival collection, and dogs were the most popular subject. Our archivist Erica shows us some of our dozens of wooden dogs, including her personal favorites!

08/19/2026

Eastern State Penitentiary, America's first penitentiary and once the most famous prison in the world, sat abandoned for nearly two decades after closing its doors in 1971.

Faced with costly repairs and deteriorating conditions, Pennsylvania ceased the operation of Eastern State Penitentiary in 1970. After being used briefly as a city jail in 1971, the building stood empty and at risk of demolition until 1988, when, at the urging of a task force of concerned architects, preservationists, and historians, Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode halted the process of selling the site.

These images from the 1990s show the effects of this period on abandonment on the site, around the time the Eastern State Penitentiary Task Force began to pursue their vision to preserve this iconic landmark and stabilize it to make it safe and accessible to the public.

08/15/2026

Did you know that 12 Monkeys and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were filmed at Eastern State Penitentiary? 🎥 Take a look at these movie clips side-by-side with the historic locations where they were filmed!

08/14/2026

Look who stopped by 👀 Joe Pyfer, Sean Brady, Natalia Silva, and Diego Lopes toured Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site ahead of UFC 330 tomorrow. Nothing like a little Philly history before fight night 💪

08/14/2026

08/12/2026

The Eastern Echo (1956-1967) was a color magazine written, edited, and designed by incarcerated men at Eastern State Penitentiary for national circulation.

Because it was written for a national audience, including readers with no connection to the prison system, The Eastern Echo featured a wide range of content. Alongside prison news, its pages included crossword puzzles, book reviews, poems, and longer essays on topics such as rehabilitation and vocational training. Scholars outside the prison also occasionally contributed essays. Through art, stories, and opinion pieces, the magazine sought to give a broader audience insight into the experience of incarceration.

08/07/2026

Eastern State Penitentiary has stood in Fairmount since 1829. These aerial views span 1929 to present, nearly a century of change at one of Philadelphia's most historically significant sites that is still standing and being preserved today.

07/30/2026

We're recruiting for the 2026 Preservation Masonry Academy at Eastern State! 🧱⚒️

This paid, hands-on training program is open to Philadelphia-region residents 18+ interested in a career in masonry or historic preservation. Crew members work alongside expert craft workers, earn $17/hour for six weeks (40 hrs/week, Sept 22 to Oct 30), and help preserve a National Historic Landmark. 👷 T-shirts, steel-toed boots, and SEPTA passes provided. Graduates get support finding full-time employment after the program.

Interested applicants must attend one mandatory info session:
💻 Online: August 11, 6:00 pm ET (Zoom)
📍 In person: August 13, 10:00 am ET at PowerCorpsPHL, 2300 Master Street

Space is limited. Full details and info session sign-up: https://easternstate.org/events/series/preservation-trades-center-information-sessions-summer-2026

07/29/2026

We're proud to announce Cody Stuhltrager as the inaugural artist-in-residence for ReVision: Art and Justice, a new multi-year residency and exhibition series that centers justice-impacted artists and explores the ongoing impact of incarceration through contemporary art.

Cody began his artistic career in 2013, collaborating with Mural Arts Philadelphia while incarcerated at SCI-Graterford.

Over the past decade, he has contributed to dozens of Philadelphia murals and public art projects, exhibited at prominent venues including the Barnes Foundation, and dedicated himself to supporting fellow artists across disciplines in the production and installation of their work.

During his residency, Cody will create a new site-specific installation debuting in fall 2026, collaborate with our staff and community partners, and engage visitors through public programs along the way.

Join us on Saturday, August 1, during Summer Nights: Art & Resistance Night to meet Cody and participate in a drop-in art activity.

ReVision: Art and Justice has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

07/26/2026

GTMO, an art installation by William Cromar at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, places a replica of a holding cell from Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay inside one of Eastern State's historic prison cells.

"GTMO," military shorthand for Guantanamo Bay, is as exact a replica of a Camp X-Ray cell as Cromar was able to create.

By placing the Guantanamo Bay cell within an Eastern State cell, Cromar invites visitors to consider what he described as "nearly polar-opposite means to find a nearly equivalent end." The contrast is striking. Eastern State's cell is massive, opaque, and built of stone. The Camp X-Ray cell is small and almost entirely transparent, reflecting different approaches to incarceration, surveillance, and prison architecture.