A prisoner is sitting on straw in a cave with his feet chained to the wall, there are a few provisions on a small shelf in the rock. Etching by R. Blyth after J.H. Mortimer.

Plague in Cape Town: convicts cleansing and disinfecting infected buildings. Drawing by H. Johnson, 1891.

Turkish prisoners sitting in a cell with a barred window; two of them are racing cockroaches. Process print by Meisenbach after H. Lanos after W.T. Maud.

Men and women are prisoners in cells, one man is being tortured by having the soles of his feet beaten with a stick. Wood engraving after G. Durand.

Rangoon, Burma: prisoners working a treadmill in jail. Photograph by Watts & Skeen, 189-.

Pero breast-feeding her father Cimon in prison. Line engraving by J.P. le Bas after N.N. Coypel.

Thirteen male prisoners in India or Burma ("dacoits", bandits) wearing chains around their necks and ankles. Process print.

W.E. Gladstone and other Liberal politicians as prisoners being released from prison; relatives and friends waiting for them at the gate. Colour lithograph by Tom Merry, 18 December 1886.

Blackwell's Island Penitentiary, New York: (left) prisoners are walking in a long file leaving spoons in a bowl as they go past; (right) prisoners stand in line to receive a loaf of bread. Wood engraving after G.U. Régamay.

Franco-Prussian War: Civil unrest in Paris. Wood engraving.

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An episode in John Milton's 'Samson agonistes': the first lines of the poem, in which Samson is allowed out of the dungeon to reflect on his blind fate in the open air

1 print : stipple engraving ; image 22.1 x 15.5 cm

A fettered Samson sits blind and distraught in a gloomy clearing. Stipple engraving by T. Kirk after R. Westall.

1 print : process print ; image 14.9 x 22.6 cm

A prisoner's feet are tied to a pole as a man with a long stick beats the soles of his feet, Persia. Process print by C. Hentschel, 1896, after F. Dadd.

Adamson Collection

1 painting : watercolour ; sheet 56.2 x 44 cm

A woman standing manacled to the walls and floor of a gabled cell against a dark and tumultuous background. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1958.

"Strangulation. The "slow strangulation" of a Chinese woman. She took fifteen minutes to die from the time strangulation commenced"--label attached to a copy of the final photograph in the series of six

China: execution by strangulation of a woman convicted of murdering her husband

1 photograph : photoprint ; sheet 9.5 x 6 cm

China: a woman sentenced to execution by strangulation for murdering her husband, being attached to the execution post. Photograph, 19--.

"A paragraph contributed by Lady Stradbroke to 'What the world says' on 17 January 1883 provoked a complaint from Lord Lonsdale, whose irregular love life was the subject, and Yates, accepting responsibility although he had not intended the paragraph to be published, was charged with criminal libel and sentenced to four months' imprisonment. The unexpectedly heavy sentence almost certainly owed as much to memories of his precocious insolence to Thackeray as to his relatively infrequent descents into muckraking in The World. He served only seven weeks of his sentence (16 January to 10 March 1885), but both his physical and mental health suffered and never fully recovered."--Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. Yates, Edmund Hodgson (1831–1894), journalist and novelist
The chaplain holds a copy of a magazine called Truth: if this is the publication of that title founded by Henry Labouchère MP in 1877, the chaplain would be Labouchère himself

1 print : lithograph, printed in colours ; image 32.4 x 22.7 cm

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Prisoners

Images

Works

A fettered Samson sits blind and distraught in a gloomy clearing. Stipple engraving by T. Kirk after R. Westall.

A prisoner's feet are tied to a pole as a man with a long stick beats the soles of his feet, Persia. Process print by C. Hentschel, 1896, after F. Dadd.

A woman standing manacled to the walls and floor of a gabled cell against a dark and tumultuous background. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1958.

China: a woman sentenced to execution by strangulation for murdering her husband, being attached to the execution post. Photograph, 19--.

A prison chaplain (Henry Labouchère) is visiting the journalist Edmund Yates in prison. Colour lithograph by Judd & Co. after Tom Merry, 3 May 1884.

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Wellcome uses cookies.

Prisoners

Images

Works

A fettered Samson sits blind and distraught in a gloomy clearing. Stipple engraving by T. Kirk after R. Westall.

A prisoner's feet are tied to a pole as a man with a long stick beats the soles of his feet, Persia. Process print by C. Hentschel, 1896, after F. Dadd.

A woman standing manacled to the walls and floor of a gabled cell against a dark and tumultuous background. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1958.

China: a woman sentenced to execution by strangulation for murdering her husband, being attached to the execution post. Photograph, 19--.

A prison chaplain (Henry Labouchère) is visiting the journalist Edmund Yates in prison. Colour lithograph by Judd & Co. after Tom Merry, 3 May 1884.

Wellcome Collection

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