Public Gaol
Block 27. Building 02.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
View looking along Nicholson Street towards the pillory and stocks outside the Public Gaol soon after its restoration, Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1940.
Nivison, Frank
Circa 1940
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Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia
Postcards - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Jails - Virginia - Williamsburg
Museum docent - Virginia - Williamsburg
Recto and verso of postcard with an illustration of costumed interpreters standing in front of the of the Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia. Back of card reads: After 250 years, this "strong sweet Prison" remains grim evidence of crime and punishment in colonial America. Debtors, criminals, and pirates were imprisoned here, including brigands from "Captain Blackbeard's" infamous crew.
Official Colonial Williamsburg Card
H. S. Crocker Co. Inc.
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AVPC-589-R
AVPC-589-V
Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia
Garrison, Richard
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Jails - Virginia - Williamsburg
Museum docents - Virginia - Williamsburg
Costumed nterpreters stand next to the pillory outside the Public Gaol, Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1930's
Garrison, Richard
Circa 1930's
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Garr-019
Stocks at the Public Gaol, Wiliamsburg, Va.
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Postcards - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Recto and verso of postcard featuring a view of the stocks and pillory when they were located outside the Public Gaol. The platform provided a popular photo opportunity for early tourists to Colonial Williamsburg, Now re-located to Market Square, the replicas of 18th-century methods of punishment remain a favorite camera subject.
Back of postcard reads: "The Public Gaol, 1701-1704. This building dates from the beginning of the eighteenth- century and has been restored on its original foundations. It includes part of the original structure. The findings of archaeological and documentary research furnished a very complete record for guidance for restoring this unusual structure."
Tichnor Bros. Inc.
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AV-2000-02-77-R
AV-2000-02-77-V
Gaol and Pillory
Public Gaol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 27. Building 02.
Historic buildings -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
Public buildings -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
<p>Exterior view of the Public Gaol and pillory, 1933. Opened as an exhibition building in April 1936, the Public Gaol is one of eighty-eight original buildings in the Historic Area that have been restored to their eighteenth-century appearance. "In its present form, the Public Gaol has three rooms on the first floor -- a hall and chamber for the gaoler and his family and a cell at the rear for debtors -- and 'chambers' in the attic for the gaoler's use and the confinement of prisoners."</p>
<p>The pillory - "or 'stretch-neck,' called 'the essence of punishment' in England - stood in the main squares of towns up and down the colonies. An upright board, hinged or divided in half with a hole in which the head was set fast, it usually also had two openings for the hands. Often the ears of the subject were nailed to the wood on either side of the head hole."</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Sources: on the Public Gaol, see Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 74; on the pillory, see Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, "Bilboes, Brands, and Branks: Colonial Crimes and Punishments," <em>Colonial Williamsburg Journal </em>(Spring 2003) <http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/spring03/branks.cfm> (accessed 14 March 2014).<em> </em></p>
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
1933
This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
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D2008-COPY-1014-1019