Black-and-white photograph of the Alcatraz dining room, with inmates seated at tables at the left under a low ceiling and columns, and staff standing near a serving area at the right. — Open the full imageJPG, 1800 × 1456 px, 0.3 MB

Alcatraz dining room, 24 June 1957: "Following noon meal, inmates are checked back into cellhouse" (National Archives)

Bureau of Prisons photograph of the Alcatraz main dining room on 24 June 1957. The catalog's caption reads that inmates are checked back into the cellhouse after the noon meal.

Date: 1957-06-24
Kind: photograph
Source: National Archives Catalog
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
NAID: 280956858
Rights: A Bureau of Prisons photograph, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Series "Photographs Illustrating the Facilities and Activities of the Bureau of Prisons" (NAID 532602), Records of the Bureau of Prisons (Record Group 129). The National Archives catalog marks use and access "Unrestricted." The copy stored here is an 1,800-pixel downsample of the catalog's digital object.

The catalog gives the original caption as “Following noon meal, inmates are checked back into cellhouse” and the date as 24 June 1957. The photograph shows the main dining room: seated inmates and staff are visible under a low ceiling and columns, with a serving area at the right. The catalog does not name a photographer. The local identifier, taken from the image file name, is 129-G-177-11, and the record has a second image that was not viewed.

The photograph shows no individual by name. It is filed as a view of the institution in its last years; the Bureau of Prisons says Alcatraz closed on 21 March 1963 (BOP Alcatraz history).

itemPhotographs Illustrating the Facilities and Activities of the Bureau of Prisons (National Archives series)National Archives series of photographs of federal prisons and camps, mostly from about 1930: buildings, living conditions, dining, recreation and custody procedures. Three items from it are filed here.

itemAlcatraz serving counter, 24 June 1957: "After count is secure, culinary employees can eat" (National Archives)Bureau of Prisons photograph at Alcatraz dated 24 June 1957 of men in white uniforms at a serving counter. The catalog's caption reads that culinary employees can eat after the count is secure.itemAlcatraz (Federal Bureau of Prisons history page)The Bureau of Prisons' history page on Alcatraz names Al Capone among the well-known criminals who did time there, and says most of its prisoners were not well-known gangsters.