“You were a number, you weren’t a name.” -586 James Quillen
For my second quarter Museum Connections project, I made an Alcatraz cell house. It is now a tourist spot, but I can’t say that I painted it because I used more than paint. However, I was first intrigued by this federal prison when my aunt was planning what we were going to do on our vacation to San Francisco, California this past summer. During our week stay there, we had visited Alcatraz island, and I was fascinated by everything I learned.
While I wanted to make a model of the Alcatraz island, I didn’t have the time or help to do it. This was the first problem I ran into, so I improvised and came up with something else. With my aunts idea to paint a canvas with a frame, I went to work. However, i ran into many more problems. Instead of using paints I wanted to use markers for more detail, but the marker kept rubbing off. Then I used a…show more content… Blacks and whites were kept separate. Everyone could be together, but blacks were still kept separate. Only a handful of officers were black also. The Dining Hall was potentially the most dangerous place. Everyone was given a fork, knife, and spoon. It was nicknamed the “Gas Chamber” because if things got out of hand, an officer could press a button and it would release tear gas. Although, inmates knew they would never trip the button because the two guards and lieutenant would not make it out alive. Every prisoner had twenty minute meals, and there was a strict regulation that food was required to be healthy and pleasantly served. Sometimes people would kill during meals, and kitchen knives would also disappear from time to time. After time and weather taking a tull on Alcatraz, it was becoming too expensive to run. Over three decade, 1,500 people had served time at Alcatraz. In early 1963, Robert F Kennedy ordered Alcatraz closed. On March 21st, 1963, the last prisoners had
