Presidential Pardon

Anon.

Presidential Pardon, 1968

Woven cigarette packaging

Huntsville Prison, Huntsville, Texas

Presidential Pardon is a purse made of woven cigarette boxes covered with postage stamps bearing images of former Presidents George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Additionally, there are also six cent stamps displaying the American flag. Simple in design, the purse has alternating bands organized by the pale colors of the stamps themselves. Each stamp came from mail delivered to the Prison and collected by the artisan-inmate.

Huntsville Prison was nicknamed “Walls Unit” because of its thick red brick walls. For its entire
history, racial tensions have been elevated at Huntsville Prison. Unfair treatment of inmates of color, whether while doing hard labor or at prison farms such as James Farm or later at Ellis Farm, essentially recreated 20th century conditions tantamount to slavery. In the summer of 1974 in what was to become America’s longest prison hostage situation, three armed inmates seized 10 prison employees and 4 other hostages at Huntsville.