Greeting card case for notes made by Herman Wallace while incarcerated: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A greeting card repurposed to house business cards and notes by Herman Wallace while incarcerated at Angola Prison. The greeting card has been folded in half to act as a case housing notes, documents, phone lists, and business cards. The front of the card is the cover of the case, with a colorful design of swirls, dots, and geometric designs in orange, yellow, blue, green, pink, and purple. At the center of the design, in bold white, is: [accomplice… / chum… / partner…]. On the back of the folded card, in black ink, is [2534648] followed by a UPC barcode and [195WEFR 00148-10Y / © WISHING WELL / P.O. Box 980 / Toronto, M8Z 9Z9 / MADE IN U.S.A.].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: after 1972
• Created by: Herman Wallace, American, 1941 - 2013
• Subject of: Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, American, founded 1835
• Type: address books
• Type: make-dos
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 3 1/16 × 4 5/8 × 9/16 in. (7.7 × 11.7 × 1.5 cm)
• Place used: Angola, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: American South
• Topic: Communication
• Topic: Communities
• Topic: Law
• Topic: Men
• Topic: Prisons
• Object number: A2018.36.1.4.3
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Maria Hinds
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.