Walking with a Ghost

I attended a fantastic lecture and discussion at Eastern State Penitentiary earlier this week.

The lecture and subsequent discussion focused on the site's dependence on its haunted house, Terror Behind the Walls, which takes place from September through Halloween each year. Terror Behind the Walls has been extremely popular and brought in a full 65% of ESP's operating budget in 2010. ESP staff believe that Terror Behind the Walls allows them to operate the increasingly popular daytime, history-based tours of the site and also to make much-needed improvements to the site such as a temporary roof over one of the cell blocks. Although nearly the same number of people attended the daytime tours as did Terror Behind the Walls last year, it does seem that one supports the other. People in the audience attested to this fact.

This state of affairs, however, saddens me. I love ESP and have visited several times. The staff does an excellent job of interpreting the site and are improving the connections made between ESP and the current prison situation in this country. They care very deeply about presenting an honest and accurate look at the prison's history. I wish that the organization could sustain itself without such heavy reliance on the funds brought in through Terror Behind the Walls.

One final thought. I am very conflicted about Terror Behind the Walls. On the one hand, this event supports ESP throughout the year and ESP's staff has used the funds well. But on the other hand, Terror Behind the Walls could serve to reinforce negative stereotypes about prisons, prisoners and prison guards. ESP is stuck firmly between a rock and a hard place.

I am reminded of a story about the Philadelphia History Museum published in the New York Times last December. The museum sold some pieces from its collection in order to finance renovations and the improvement of its storage facilities, etc.

ESP and the Philadelphia History Museum seem to have raised money in the best way and attempted to use the resulting funds in the most productive and ethical way possible. But have they lost something in the process?

Money Honey

My source of all interesting news stories passed this very unfortunate one to me this evening. It seems that financial problems have forced the State Museum of Pennsylvania to cut hours and raise admission prices.

This story is heartbreaking. A lack of state funding forced the museum to begin charging admission fees last summer, and the situation has only gotten worse in the meantime. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has continued to slash state funding to museums, to the point that the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission barely has any staff left. I strongly support appropriately funding cultural institutions of all kinds so that everyone can afford to visit.

It is a travesty that the state of Pennsylvania cannot do any better than this.