Washing, Dancing, Singing: Women Living and Working in Prison

A collection of historic photographs of women living and working in prisons. These poignant photographs captivated us from the moment they were carefully unwrapped in the museum store. As the tissue paper fell we noticed solidarity, togetherness and moments of joy within the bleak sadness of the context. The photographs were taken in several UK prisons and cover a period of 140 years. They arrived in the museum collection with little provenance and we wondered how these emotive pictures could be...