Black-and-white photograph of a walled gatehouse with two corner turrets and an arched entrance, with the words U.S. Penitentiary, Atlanta lettered at the lower edge. — Open the full imageJPG, 1536 × 1043 px, 0.2 MB

Entrance to the federal penitentiary, Atlanta, 1910 (Bain News Service, Library of Congress)

Bain News Service photograph dated 1910 of the entrance to the federal penitentiary at Atlanta, a walled gatehouse with corner turrets. Reproduction number LC-USZ62-75939.

Date: 1910
Kind: photograph
Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (George Grantham Bain Collection)
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: Library of Congress rights advisory: "No known restrictions on publication." George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress; call number LOT 10877 [item]; reproduction number LC-USZ62-75939 (b&w film copy neg.). The copy stored here is a JPEG derivative of the Library's TIFF.

The Library’s record dates the photograph 1910, with the title and other information transcribed from the caption card and the item. The scan shows a concrete gatehouse wall with corner turrets and an arched entrance, with the caption “U.S. Penitentiary, Atlanta” lettered at the lower edge. The caption card’s tracings include “Prisoners… Ga. Atlanta 1910.”

The Atlanta penitentiary was one of the three authorized by the Three Prisons Act of 1891, according to the Bureau of Prisons (history). The Department of Justice album of the same penitentiary is filed separately, and Capone’s 1933 commitment to Atlanta is a federal court paper.

itemAlbum of Views of the Penitentiaries at Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (National Archives series)National Archives series of 41 mounted photographs from Department of Justice records, ca. 1900 to ca. 1925, of the Atlanta and Leavenworth penitentiaries. Nine are filed here.itemIndex to Prisoners, U.S. Penitentiary, Atlanta (National Archives series)National Archives series of index cards for Atlanta penitentiary inmates, 1902 to 1973, arranged in 263 alphabetical file units. The digitized unit where Capone's card would fall was paged without finding it.

itemUnited States Penitentiary, Atlanta, Georgia: Prison Gateway (not completed) (Department of Justice album)A mounted photograph from the Department of Justice album of the Atlanta prison gateway, captioned not completed, ca. 1900 to ca. 1925: a stone arch lettered USP.itemFederal Bureau of Prisons: Historical Information (agency overview)The Bureau of Prisons' historical overview: the Three Prisons Act of 1891, the Act of 14 May 1930 that created the Bureau, 14 facilities by the end of 1930, and USP Lewisburg opening in 1932 as the first penitentiary the Bureau built.