Established 2023
Running from 1913 to 1919, The Umpire offers an unparalleled glimpse into the life of the men — as well as some women and children — incarcerated at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary in the early twentieth century.
The Umpire began as a four-page weekly newspaper reporting on Eastern State’s baseball league. It quickly expanded beyond baseball to include news, editorials, jokes, poetry, classified ads, and more.
The format was always the same. The first page covered news from both inside and outside the prison. A report on a recent concert at Eastern State might be next to news about labor strikes or the war effort.
The second page presented a rudimentary masthead, prison population statistics, and an editorial. Facing this editorial, the third page contained jokes, poetry, and general interest factoids.
The fourth page, on the back of the newspaper, showed baseball and player statistics. It also shared classified ads selling services like typewriting or goods that men made in their cells, like greeting cards. Later, the fourth page contained the weekly report of the Honor and Friendship Club, Eastern State’s mutual aid society.
Except for some rudimentary cartoons in early issues, The Umpire was not illustrated. If an article did not fill the column, the printers or compositors would pad the page with sentimental or inspirational quotes.
To learn more about what's inside The Umpire, explore the collections below.
Many issues of The Umpire contained poetry. There is poetry about the weather and baseball; on aging and advice; on patriotism and war. There are jokes about other incarcerated men. And there is minstrelsy and racism.
Most of the verse is copied from other sources, often newspapers or books in the prison’s library. Sentimental verse about mothers are particularly common. But by far the most engaging verse is always written by those incarcerated at Eastern State. Click here to access the verse printed in The Umpire.
While you might expect to find a lot about prisons in a prison newspaper, in fact the men incarcerated at Eastern State, like many others, used their press to distract themselves from life behind bars.
A regular joke column shared one-liners, gossip, and advice on how to keep one's spirits lifted while serving time. Writers ragged their friends, creating a spirit of camaraderie in print. As is true today, many jokes are based on prejudicial stereotypes of immigrants, women, and people of color.
Classified ads begin appearing in The Umpire in July 1913. It quickly became a regular column, bearing witness to Eastern State's cottage industries. Some men offer services, like typewriting. Others sell small goods made in their cells, like greeting cards, frames, and inlaid boxes. Each seller had to sign with his inmate number and the cell block where he could be found.
Click here to access the classifieds columns in The Umpire.
