Mounted photograph of three open cells at Leavenworth with numbers 117, 119 and 121 above them and folded bedding on the bunks.
Open the full imageJPG, 1800 × 1201 px, 0.2 MB

United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas: View of Cells (Department of Justice album)

A mounted photograph from the Department of Justice album showing cells at Leavenworth, ca. 1900 to ca. 1925: open cell doors with numbered cells and folded bedding.

Date
1900/1925
Kind
photograph
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
99956061
Rights
A federal record created by the Department of Justice (Record Group 60), series "Album of Views of United States Penitentiaries at Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas" (NAID 518093). A United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The National Archives catalog marks the item use and access "Unrestricted." The copy stored here is an 1,800-pixel downsample of the catalog's digital object.

The catalog title is “United States Penitentiary - Leavenworth, Kansas: View of Cells.” It is one mounted print from the Department of Justice album of views of the Atlanta and Leavenworth penitentiaries, two of the three penitentiaries that, according to the Bureau of Prisons, the Three Prisons Act of 1891 authorized. The photograph shows a row of cells with their barred doors open and bedding stacked inside; cell numbers 117, 119 and 121 are visible above the doors.

The mount carries a typed caption in English and Spanish; the English line reads “View of Cells.” The catalog dates the series “ca. 1900 - ca. 1925” and the item carries no date of its own, so no year is claimed for this view. The local identifier is 60-AL-33; the original is a large JPEG of about 36 MB, and the stored copy is smaller.