Archive for the ‘Electric Chairs’ Category

This episode of the Old State House Museum Collections Podcast covers the history of the prison system in Arkansas and the collection of objects acquired in 2008 from the Arkansas Department of Correction.  The collection consists of 236 objects ranging from the only two electric chairs used to carry out executions in the state of Arkansas, to inmate-made prison weapons, to the infamous Tucker Telephone.  As we have done in previous installments, we conducted an interview with an expert in the field, Dina Tyler, Public Relations Director for the Arkansas Department of Correction.   The podcast is embedded below as a YouTube video in two parts.  If you would like to subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, click here. (You must have iTunes installed on your machine.) If you would like to download a slightly smaller version of this episode directly to your hard drive, click here.

Part One

Part Two

   
As a sneak peak into our upcoming podcast on the Department of Correction Collection, here is a short clip from our interview with Dina Tyler, spokeswoman for the DOC.  The topic of the clip is the death penalty in Arkansas, specifically the state’s electric chairs – Old Sparky I and II.  Just click the red play button below.

The chairs and many other objects in the Department of Correction Collection are currently on exhibit at the Old State House in an exhibit called “Badges, Bandits, and Bars: Arkansas Law and Justice.”