Martin Luther King Jr.’s Prison Cell Bars (Birmingham Prison)

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A black-and-white photograph of Martin Luther King Jr.’s prison cell bars in the Birmingham Prison, by Platon. The photograph depicts a close-up of the bars, lock and door to the prison cell. The lock is depicted slightly off-center, on the right. The rest of the photograph are the vertical and horizontal bars of the cell. The interior of the cell is dark. The photograph has a thick white border. The edition number, [5/12], is printed in the bottom left corner. The photographer’s signature and date, [Platon 19], is handwritten in the bottom right corner. Inside the border, at the bottom center, is the photographer’s embossed mark: [PLATON ? / EDITIONED ? / PRINT ?[encircled between two bands of embossed dots]]. The back of the photograph is plain and white.

Explore Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture ↗