Prison Sentences: Recovering the Voices of Prisoners through Exhibition, Instruction, and Outreach

Abstract

This chapter examines Special Collections through the lens of the marginalized and disempowered by providing an overview of a prison newsletter exhibit, how undergraduates researched the collection for a seminar, and finally, the challenges of taking special collections behind prison walls. With a focus on interactions with the disempowered community that generated the newsletters, others are encouraged to reach out and make connections to the creators of their diverse collections. The chapter concludes with a roadmap for conducting future visits with special collections to incarcerated scholars, reiterating that curators must continually seek ways to make the unique voices in collections heard.