Public Collectors is founded upon the concern that there are many types of cultural artifacts that public libraries, museums and other institutions and archives either do not collect or do not make freely accessible. Public Collectors asks individuals that have had the luxury to amass, organize, and inventory these materials to help reverse this lack by making their collections public.
This page consists of sample findings and excerpts. It is also an account of the contents of my home and digital files from my camera. If you have suggestions, have a collection you want to share, or are in Chicago and would like to see something in person, please contact me. This blog is intended as a casual, more personal supplement to the main Public Collectors website.
Public Collectors is maintained by Marc Fischer.
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Common tags: Book Cover Design • Chicago • Drawing • Flea Market • Flyers • Illustration • Prison • Records • Religious Tracts • Signage • Zines
Photocopy art by an unknown artist, used as stationary in a letter I received from Paul Wright back in February 1990 when he was incarcerated in Washington state. Paul founded Prison Legal News around the same time that we were corresponding. The journal continues to this day.
Photocopy art by an unknown artist, used as stationary in a letter I received from Paul Wright back in February 1990 when he was incarcerated in Washington state. Paul founded Prison Legal News around the same time that we were corresponding. The journal continues to this day.
A photocopy of a drawing (circa 1990) by Jaime Sanchez. Sanchez was incarcerated in Arizona at the time that this was sent to me by a fellow prisoner from the same institution.
A photocopy of a 1990 drawing by Jaime Sanchez. Sanchez was incarcerated in Arizona at the time that this was sent to me by a fellow prisoner from the same institution.
Prison envelope art by Danny Davis, who was incarcerated in Gatesville, Texas when he sent me this letter in 1991.
This drawing by J.W. Karr, Jr. was scanned from a photocopied, comb-bound book of tattoo designs that he sent me in the early 1990s. At the time, Karr was incarcerated in Clawson, Michigan.
Unsigned, undated ballpoint pen drawing (circa early 1990s) sent to me by an artist in prison. I believe this is by Kevin Fink, who was incarcerated in Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington.
A drawing by Paul R. Allison mailed to me in April 1993. At the time that he sent this, Paul was in prison in Amarillo, Texas.
Killing Time: Life in the Arkansas Penitentiary by Bruce Jackson, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1977.
Killing Time: Life in the Arkansas Penitentiary by Bruce Jackson, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1977. I’m really happy to have found a copy of this book today. As an undergrad, I was a visiting artist at Western Penitentiary in Pittsburgh (no longer open) and during that time I was particularly obsessed with this book. I’m sure I checked it out of the library at Carnegie Mellon at least several times. Killing Time remains a powerful look at prison life with many keenly observed and haunting photos.
Scanned from The Messenger, Fall Issue, 1976. The Messenger was a quarterly periodical published by and for the men of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the permission of the warden. More posts about this publication, including a link to download a PDF of the Summer 1972 issue, here.
“Doin’ Cell Time” - a column by Thomas E. Skolimowski scanned from The Messenger, Summer 1972.
The Messenger was a quarterly periodical published by and for the men of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the permission of the warden. “The purpose of this magazine is to give the inmates an opportunity for self expression, to provide them a medium of discussion of public problems, to foster better understanding between inmates and the general public, and to be constructively informative.” Click here to download a 75.2 mb PDF of this entire issue of The Messenger.
A new PDF is available for download in the Public Collectors PDF collection.
The Messenger, Summer 1972, Vol. 57, No. 2, Sioux City Falls, South Dakota.
The Messenger was a quarterly periodical published by and for the men of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the permission of the warden. “The purpose of this magazine is to give the inmates an opportunity for self expression, to provide them a medium of discussion of public problems, to foster better understanding between inmates and the general public, and to be constructively informative.”
Click here to download this 75.2 mb file.
![An uncredited work of art from the Summer 1972 issue of The Messenger. The Messenger was published by and for the men of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the permission of the warden. “The purpose of this magazine is to give the inmates an opportunity for self expression, to provide them a medium of discussion of public problems, to foster better understanding between inmates and the general public, and to be constructively informative.”
If anyone has other issues of this magazine, please get in touch with me: marc [at] publiccollectors.org](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrnbh7aiSq1qa53iwo1_500.jpg)
An uncredited work of art from the Summer 1972 issue of The Messenger. The Messenger was published by and for the men of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the permission of the warden. “The purpose of this magazine is to give the inmates an opportunity for self expression, to provide them a medium of discussion of public problems, to foster better understanding between inmates and the general public, and to be constructively informative.”
If anyone has other issues of this magazine, please get in touch with me: marc [at] publiccollectors.org
