Small Bible repurosed into an address book by Herman Wallace while incarcerated: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A tiny, faux-leather bound Bible repurposed into an address book by Herman Wallace while incarcerated at Angola Prison. The book holds notes, loose papers, and contact information. The front cover houses a yellowed black-and-white photograph of a young man wearing sunglasses and a short sleeve shirt. On the inside of the Bible is a thick stack of miscellaneous papers. The back cover is heavily worn, cracked, and warped, but still intact.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: after 1972
• Manufactured by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, American, founded 1835
• Type: records
• Type: address books
• Type: Bibles
• Type: make-dos
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product) with synthetic fiber
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 4 3/4 × 2 15/16 × 1 in. (12 × 7.5 × 2.5 cm)
• Place used: Angola, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: American South
• Topic: Communication
• Topic: Men
• Topic: Prisons
• Object number: A2018.36.1.5
• 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: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.