Finding Aid for the Martha Alice Stewart: Time on Parchman Farm Collection
MUM01772
Table of Contents
PURL
http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM01772/
Summary Information
- Repository
- University of Mississippi Libraries
- Creator
- Stewart, Martha Alice
- Title
- Martha Alice Stewart: Time on Parchman Farm Collection
- ID
- MUM01772
- Date [bulk]
- Bulk, 1926-1939
- Date [inclusive]
- 1895-1939
- Extent
- 0.834 Linear feet (2 boxes and 1 oversize item)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Abstract
- Martha Alice Stewart was head nurse at Mississippi State Penitentiary, commonly known as Parchman Farm, in the 1930s. The collection contains documents related to the prison as well as personal and professional documents of Stewart, and 210 black-and-white photographs taken during Stewart's tenure at the prison.
Preferred Citation
Martha Alice Stewart: Time on Parchman Farm Collection (MUM01772), Archives and Special Collections, J.D. Williams Library, The University of Mississippi
Biographical/Historical Note
About Martha Alice Stewart
Martha Alice Stewart was born 20 February 1898 in northeast Mississippi, the third of eight children. Fortunate enough to receive education beyond the secondary level, Stewart completed her nurse's training in 1925 and was appointed as a graduate nurse at a veterans' hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Later that year she assumed a similar post at a hospital in Outwood, Ky., which she held until April 1926. She then took a post at Gartley & Ramsay Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital in Memphis.
Stewart served as head nurse at Parchman Farm from 1930 to 1940. Although she stood only 5'2" tall, Stewart had a reputation for being tough and competent. Dr. J.D. Biles Jr., former “Doctor-in-charge” at Parchman, wrote a letter on 29 December 1939 to Governor-elect Paul B. Johnson in support of Stewart’s remaining at Parchman as head nurse. However, the incoming governor did not grant Biles’s request, and Stewart returned to Northeast Mississippi by May of 1940.
(Information provided by Dr. E. Kate Stewart, Professor of English, University of Arkansas at Monticello)
About Parchman Farm
Located in Sunflower County, Miss., Mississippi State Penitentiary (commonly known as Parchman Farm) was founded in 1901 with just four stockades. The prison was intended to be a self-sustaining and profit-making farm, with prisoners performing farm labor. This plan was a successful one--in 1905, the prison turned a profit of $185,000.
Originally housing only African-American inmates, by the 1910s Parchman Farm was home to both African Americans and whites. Juveniles as well as adults were housed at the prison. Many accounts have been written detailing the abuse of prisoners and brutal conditions at Parchman Farm.
Please see "Related Materials" for titles of related books held in the University of Mississippi's Archives and Special Collections department.
Scope and Content
The collection contains documents related to Parchman Farm as well as personal and professional documents of Martha Alice Stewart, and 210 black-and-white photographs taken during Stewart's tenure at the prison.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged by format in two series, then by subject within each series.
- Series 1:
- Manuscripts
- Series 2:
- Photographs
Administrative Information
Publication Information
University of Mississippi Libraries January 2013
Access Restrictions
The Martha Alice Stewart: Time on Parchman Farm Collection is open for research. The photographs in this collection are stored at an off-site facility. Researchers interested in using this collection must contact Archives and Special Collections at least two business days in advance of their planned visit. However, researchers are strongly encouraged to use the digitized photographs.
Copyright Restrictions
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
Additions
No further additions are expected to this collection.
Acquisition Information
Donated by Bryan King, Catherine King, and Kate Stewart, 2012
Processing Information
Collection processed by Pamela Williamson, 2012. Finding aid created by Kathryn Michaelis, January 2013.
Alternative Formats
This collection has been digitized and is available online.
Related Materials
Resources at the University of Mississippi
Down on Parchman Farm: The Great Prison in the Mississippi Delta. By William Banks Taylor. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999. Call number: HV9475.M7 T394 1999
Worse than slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. By David M. Oshinsky. New York: Free Press, 1996. Call number: HV9475.M72 M576 1996
For more materials related to Parchman Farm, please see the Archives' Criminal Justice and Parchman Penitentiary Subject Guide.
Separated Material
For preservation purposes, photographs have been moved to collection photographs box (CPB)102.
A nursing textbook belonging to Martha Alice Stewart, Modern methods in nursing by Georgiana J. Sanders (Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1922), has been separated and cataloged. Call number: RT41.S3 1924
Controlled Access Headings
Corporate Name(s)
- Mississippi State Penitentiary
Genre(s)
- black-and-white photographs
- certificates
- correspondence
- envelopes
Geographic Name(s)
- Parchman (Miss.)
Personal Name(s)
- Bilbo, Theodore Gilmore, 1877-1947
- Conner, Martin Sennett, 1891-1950
- White, Hugh L. (Hugh Lawson), 1881-1965
Subject(s)
- Agriculture -- Mississippi
- Black-and-white photography -- Mississippi
- Cotton growing -- Mississippi
- Prison nurses
Collection Inventory
Series 1: Manuscripts |
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1.1-1.2 Typhoid fever diet (appears to be from nursing school), circa 1922-1925 Scope and Contents note14 items |
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1.3.1 Christmas dinner, veterans hospital, Outwood, Ky., 1925 |
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1.3.2 Letters from H. F. “Frank” Belser, Outwood VA Hospital, January-February 1926, May 1926 Scope and Contents note30 items |
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1.4 Fan with pencil sketch of Martha Alice Stewart (broken in two), 1930 |
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1.5 Miscellaneous letters and cards Scope and Contents note9 items |
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1.6.1 Appointment to VA Hospital, Memphis, 22 July 1925 |
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1.6.2 Civil Service Commission, initial response to application with envelope, 5 August 1925 Scope and Contents note2 items |
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1.6.3 Civil Service Report, 22 September 1925 |
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1.6.4 Appointment to VA Hospital, Memphis, 16 October 1925, 12 April 1926 |
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1.6.5 Letter from former inmate at Parchman, 17 August 1938 |
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1.6.6 Letter from W. E. Wiggins, 25 August 1937 |
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1.6.7 Letter to Governor-elect Paul B. Johnson, Sr., 29 December 1939 |
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1.7.1 Postcard sent to Outwood, Ky., 1926 |
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1.7.2 Envelope, now empty, allegedly contained teeth, 1 January 1928 |
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1.8.1 Letter written at Gartley-Ramsay Hospital, Memphis, circa 1927-1930 |
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1.8.2 Card to Kate McBryde Stewart, 10 May 1929 |
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1.8.3 Funeral card - family of the late Thaddeus Cannon, 16 October 1932 |
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1.9-1.11 Personal letters sent to Parchman, 1930-1939 Scope and Contents note13 items |
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1.12.1 Martha Alice Stewart’s nursing certificate, 11 March 1914 |
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1.12.2 Certificate for pin, undated |
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1.12.3 Letter enclosing certificate, undated |
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1.12.4 Application for Membership to the Mississippi State Nurses’ Association, undated |
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1.13.1 Martha Alice Stewart Cards, undated Scope and Contents note5 items |
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1.13.2 Martha Alice Stewart obituary, undated |
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1.14-1.45 Correspondence from H. F. Belber (Frank) to Martha Alice Stewart , February–June 1926 Scope and Contents note32 letters |
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1.46 Empty envelopes, April–May 1926 Scope and Contents note3 items |
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2.1 (OVRS) Nursing school diploma, Martha Alice Stewart, 1925 Scope and Contents noteOversized |
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Series 2: Photographs |
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Subseries 2.1: Farming/Livestock |
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102.1.1.1 Prisoners cleaning ditch bank |
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102.1.1.2 Filling water jugs for prisoners |
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102.1.2 Prisoners picking cotton |
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102.1.3 Prisoners stacking cotton |
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102.1.4 Prisoners picking cotton |
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102.1.5 Prisoners hoeing cotton |
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102.1.6.1 Prisoners lining up to go to work hoeing cotton |
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102.1.6.2 Prisoners outside barracks |
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102.1.7 Prison Supervisor on tractor |
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102.1.8.1 Prisoners loading hay wagons |
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102.1.8.2 Prison quarter |
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102.1.9.1 Prison barracks |
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102.1.9.2 Prisoners hoeing weeds in cotton field |
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102.1.10.1 Prison cook staff and trustees |
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102.1.10.2 Prisoners picking cotton in large field |
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102.2.1 Prisoners bringing full cotton sacks to the gin |
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102.2.2 Prison staff loading supplies |
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102.2.3 Prisoners plowing field |
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102.2.4 Prisoners taking truck and trailer load of cotton to gin |
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102.2.5 Prisoners meeting the water wagon |
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102.2.6.1 Harvesting corn |
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102.2.6.2 Work crew cleaning ditch bank |
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102.2.7.1 Prisoners going to work in the fields |
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102.2.7.2 Large prison barracks |
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102.2.8.1 Workers and prisoners harvesting crops |
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102.2.8.2 Large prisoner work crew ready to go to work |
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102.2.9 Water wagons |
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102.2.10.1 Livestock barn on the penitentiary |
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102.2.10.2 Prisoners dumping cotton sacks |
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102.3.1.1 Prisoners pulling cart |
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102.3.1.2 Guard station in cotton field |
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102.3.2 Mule teams and handlers |
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102.3.3 Mule team ready for inspection |
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102.3.4 Mule teams being inspected |
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102.3.5 Mule team inspection completed |
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102.3.6 Mule teams line up after inspection |
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102.3.7 Cotton field being picked |
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102.3.8 Cotton field ready to be picked |
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102.3.9 Cotton field after early planting |
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102.3.10 Corn field |
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102.4.1 Prisoners picking cotton |
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102.4.2 Large hay stacks |
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102.4.3 Partially harvested corn field |
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102.4.4 Corn field early crop |
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102.4.5 Corn field skip rowed with soy beans |
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102.4.6 Corn shocks after harvest |
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102.4.7.1 Large bull |
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102.4.7.2 Hogs feeding in field |
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102.4.8 Upset bull |
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102.4.9 Hogs at the feed trough Scope and Content2 photographs |
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102.5.1 Large hog |
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102.5.2 Cleaning hogs |
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102.5.3.1 Slaughtered and dressed hogs |
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102.5.3.2 Large hog and handlers |
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102.5.4 Mule team pulling cotton wagon |
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102.5.5 Combining corn |
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102.5.6.1 Parchman prison church |
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102.5.6.2 Baling hay |
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102.5.7 Mules and prisoners plowing fields |
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102.5.8 Mule teams line up after inspection |
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102.5.9 Slaughtered hogs and mule team |
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Subseries 2.2: Locust Blight |
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102.6.1 Locust devouring corn stalk |
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102.6.2 Locust on plant |
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102.6.3 Corn field after locust passed through |
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102.6.4 Plant stalk after locust passed through |
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102.6.5 Plant stalk after locust passed through |
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102.6.6.1 Cotton field after locust passed through |
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102.6.6.2 Corn field just prior to locust attack |
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102.6.7 Unidentified field after locust attack |
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102.6.8 Inspecting locust damage |
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Subseries 2.3: Pap Tabor |
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102.7.1.1 Newspaper article on Pap Tabor |
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102.7.1.2 Early picture when Tabor first went to Parchman |
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102.7.1.3 Tabor reading paper |
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102.7.1.4 Tabor in suit in potato field |
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102.7.2.1 Tabor with pumpkin |
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102.7.2.2 Tabor in field |
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102.7.3.1 Tabor in his room |
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102.7.3.2 Tabor in front of barracks |
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102.7.4.1 Tabor with birthday cake |
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102.7.4.2 Warden’s house |
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102.7.5 Birthday party (Tabor, 5th from the end on right) |
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Subseries 2.4: Snow Scenes |
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102.8.1 Infirmary snow covered |
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102.8.2 Office building snow covered |
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102.8.3.1 Grounds covered with snow |
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102.8.3.2 Ice on vegetation on grounds |
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102.8.4 Main building and grounds with snow |
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102.8.5 Infirmary snow covered |
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102.8.6 Infirmary staff during snow fall (Alice Stewart, left) |
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102.8.7 Residence building in snowfall |
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Subseries 2.5: Parchman Infirmary |
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102.9.1 Nurse in treatment area |
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102.9.2 Nurse in lab area |
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102.9.3 Infirmary nurses (Alice Stewart, right) |
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102.9.4 Nurse outside infirmary |
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102.9.5 Doctor, nurse and unidentified woman outside infirmary |
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102.9.6 Nurses outside infirmary (Alice Stewart, back left) |
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102.9.7 Unidentified boy outside infirmary |
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102.9.8 Doctor and nurses in operating room (Alice Stewart, 2nd from right) |
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102.9.9 Doctors and nurses in infirmary ward |
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102.9.10 Infirmary medicine locker |
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102.10.1.1 Infirmary ward |
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102.10.1.2 Infirmary secure ward |
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102.10.2.1 Infirmary ward |
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102.10.2.2 Dining hall |
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102.10.3 Doctors and nurses in infirmary ward |
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102.10.4 Nurse in treatment area |
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102.10.5 Doctor in lab |
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102.10.6 Doctor and nurses in operating room (Alice Stewart, right) |
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102.10.7 Alice Stewart applying anesthetic, female warden looks on |
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102.10.8 Nurse with child born at Parchman |
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102.10.9 Doctors, nurses, and trustees in infirmary ward |
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Subseries 2.6: Prison Staff |
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102.11.1 Warden |
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102.11.2 Warden |
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102.11.3 Staff members |
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102.11.4 Head guard |
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102.11.5 Nurse |
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102.11.6 Funeral on prison grounds |
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102.11.7 Staff children in swimming pool (Alice Stewart’s niece, right) |
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102.11.8 Visitors (John Stewart, Alice Stewart’s brother, right) |
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102.11.9 Hospital staff (Alice Stewart, far right) |
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102.12.1 Unknown staff member |
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102.12.2 Staff playing tennis |
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102.12.3 Hospital nurses (Alice Stewart, center) |
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102.12.4 Unknown nurse |
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102.12.5 Nurse Alice Stewart and her brother, John Stewart |
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102.12.6 Nurses (Alice Stewart, left) |
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102.12.7 Nurse Alice Stewart and her brother John Stewart |
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102.12.8 Hospital staff (Alice Stewart, far right) |
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102.12.9 Unknown staff |
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102.12.10 Staff children in swimming pool |
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102.12.11 Unidentified prison nurse |
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102.12.12 Female visitor on guard tower |
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102.13.1 Unknown male staff member |
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102.13.2 Unknown male staff member |
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102.13.3 Children at pool (Alice Stewart, far right, with her niece Martha Ruth Mauney) |
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102.13.4 Staff children in swimming pool |
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102.13.5 Visitors (John Stewart, Alice Stewart’s brother on right) |
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102.13.6 Hospital nurses (Alice Stewart on left) |
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102.13.7 Parchman staff (Alice Stewart, 6th from the end, left) |
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102.13.8.1 Parchman staff living quarters |
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102.13.8.2 Staff and trustees |
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102.14.1 Unidentified male staff member |
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102.14.2 Children in pool |
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102.14.3 Parchman staff (Alice Stewart, 6th from the end, left) |
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102.14.4 Parchman nurses in cotton field |
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102.14.5 Unidentified nurse with cats |
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102.14.6 Nurse Alice Stewart and her brother John Stewart |
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Subseries 2.7: Miscellaneous |
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102.15.1 Day’s catch ready to be cleaned and cooked |
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102.15.2 Mules ready for sale |
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102.15.3 Mules ready for sale |
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102.15.4 Wardens with juvenile prisoners |
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102.15.5.1 Confiscated hand guns |
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102.15.5.2 Kitchen staff and trustees |
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102.15.6.1 Horsemen touring the penal farm |
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102.15.6.2 Staff trustees |
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102.15.7 Kitchen trustees |
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102.15.8 Prisoners waiting to load/ unload train |
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102.15.9 Juvenile prisoners |
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102.15.10.1 Mule team pulling road grader |
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102.15.10.2 Prison guards |
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102.15.11 Four prison trustees |
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102.16.1.1 Prison shoe shop |
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102.16.1.2 Overseer in cotton field |
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102.16.2.1 Prison garment repair shop |
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102.16.2.2 German Police guard dog |
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102.16.3.1 Group of white prisoners in infirmary ward |
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102.16.3.2 Unidentified staff living quarters |
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102.16.4 African-American trustee guards |
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102.16.5 Two prisoners in large comical pants |
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102.16.6 Prison staff and juvenile prisoner |
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102.16.7 Prison band |
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102.16.8.1 Mess of fish caught by prisoners for food |
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102.16.8.2 Large prisoner barracks |
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Subseries 2.8: Buildings and Grounds |
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102.17.1 Prisoner barracks |
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102.17.2 Prison infirmary |
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102.17.3 Prison infirmary with cars in front |
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102.17.4 Dining Hall |
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102.17.5.1 Prison barracks and grounds |
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102.17.5.2 Prison wash house |
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102.17.6.1 Barracks with prisoners out front |
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102.17.6.2 Orchard and grounds |
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102.17.7 Back of prison infirmary |
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102.17.8 Barracks with prison guards and small children |
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102.17.9 Staff living quarters with garden |
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102.18.1 Barracks and grounds |
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102.18.2 Debris and building being torn down |
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102.18.3 Barracks, water tank, and grounds |
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102.18.4 Main guard station |
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102.18.5 Prison cotton gin |
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102.18.6 Sheds and boat dock (believed to be on Sunflower River) |
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102.18.7 Unidentified building with loading dock and radio tower |
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102.18.8 Guard station |
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102.18.9 Weigh station at railroad depot |
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102.18.10 Staff house with female, dogs, and trustees |
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102.18.11 Rear view of staff living quarters |
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102.19.1 Close-up of staff house, female, dogs, and trustees |
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102.19.2 Front view of warden’s house |
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102.19.3 Staff living quarters and grounds |
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102.19.4 Prison camp shrubbery |
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Subseries 2.9: Personal Photographs |
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102.20 Martha Alice Stewart Scope and Contents note10 photographs |
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102.21 Unidentified Scope and Contents note2 photographs |
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102.22 Martha Alice Stewart and others (prison staff) Scope and Contents note6 photographs |
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102.23 Martha Alice Stewart Scope and Contents note5 photographs |
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102.24 Infirmary Staff and Martha Alice Stewart Scope and Contents note5 photographs |
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102.25 Infirmary Staff, Martha Alice Stewart and gentleman with dog Scope and Contents note6 photographs |
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102.26 Children in pool at Parchman and miscellaneous photographs Scope and Contents note5 photographs |
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102.27 Thomas A. Stewart/John A. McBryde families cabinet card, circa 1895 |
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102.28 Thomas A. Stewart family, summer cabinet card, circa 1910 |
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102.29 Chalybeate School photograph, circa 1915-1920 |
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102.30 Nursing school graduation class, 1925 |
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