New Exhibit Explores Bristol County’s History of Incarceration

The New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office will open Bristol County: Incarcerated on Oct. 24. The exhibit traces the history of local incarceration from the 18th-century jail in Taunton to New Bedford’s Ash Street Jail. The Ash Street facility is the oldest continuously operating jail in the nation.

Artifacts include the Taunton jail’s debtor book from 1785 and Lizzie Borden’s 1892 mittimus. Visitors will also see 1920s inmate photographs, 19th-century jail logs, and materials from the sheriff’s office archives.

The exhibit was curated by Melanie Botvin with research by Henry Claudy, a New York University graduate student.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.