Little-known museum inside San Quentin documents prison's unsettling history
A small, unassuming building within the harsh concrete gates and extensive security of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center is open to the public, filled with often unsettling artifacts from the history of California's most infamous prison.
Associate warden Richard Nelson helped create the San Quentin Museum in 1993 while working at the prison. Located inside of San Quentin's gates, the museum showcases exhibits spanning from the prison's founding in 1852 through the 1940s.
Today, curator Jeff Craemer manages the museum which is open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The museum's location -- and the fact that visitors must go through the prison's gates -- may intimidate potential visitors, but Craemer and others feel that the location provides a greater perspective on the museum's content.
Having the museum within the prison gates was Nelson's idea, Creamer said. "He thought 'Why have it outside? We ought to have it in here so that you can feel more connected to the museum.' The museum may be about two blocks away from the gate, but you go through security and there are officers coming and going in front of the museum," Craemer said.
Craemer began curating the museum 43 years ago, working with Nelson and others to create a picture for visitors of the historical San Quentin experience. Prior to his work at the museum, Craemer was a journalist, and upon retiring he became interested in the history of San Quentin.
"I've always been interested in the history of (Marin) County, and I saw this article about San Quentin and the museum. San Quentin had always been in the news. I got ahold of Richard Nelson, and he invited me to come out to San Quentin," Craemer said. "I was very impressed by what he showed me. He asked me if I would like to be a part of the museum, and I said yes."
Earlier this year, California Governor Gavin Newsom touted the progress in transforming San Quentin into new education and rehabilitation facility. He first went public with his plan to turn San Quentin into a rehabilitation and re-entry facility in March of this year.
Preparing the exhibits
Cramer began by collecting exhibits and authenticating them. He then created a timeline for the showcases and the museum's content.
"We got the help of a woman who used to be an official at the institution and was the widow of a warden. She offered to design the museum pro bono, so we turned it over to her," Craemer said.
Craemer has worked to fill in the gaps in San Quentin's story with help from family members of retired prison staff who held on to artifacts from their time working inside the prison's gates.
"I had a woman come in whose father was an executioner with the rope that hung the last man in the prison. She also presented me with a cigar box of nooses. Her father wrote out the number of the inmate who he was to execute on a little noose and kept it in a cigar box," Craemer said.
From San Quentin's opening 170 years ago, people have been brought there before being moved to other prisons across California, serving as the initial reception area for state prisoners.
"If a judge sentences someone to prison, San Quentin is often the first place they will come. Then they are evaluated and sent somewhere else," Craemer said. "We have had some of the most high-profile people here like Charles Manson and Richard Allen Davis, who is still there, and Scott Peterson. They have since been moved, but no matter the crime they committed, they all came to San Quentin and then were sent on."
The museum also serves as a timeline of the prison and how its programs have evolved, from housing infamous prisoners to creating new rehabilitation efforts for inmates in the 1940s.
"The museum is the history of the prison and the state as we know it. The artifacts are there to see and it really gives perspective on what it used to be like," Craemer said.
An early proponent of criminal justice reform
Clinton Duffy served as the warden of San Quentin between 1940 and 1952 and was a prominent opponent of capital punishment and pushed for new rehabilitation programs in the prison.
"When Warden Duffy came along in the 40s, he changed that place and brought in rehabilitation where men could learn a vocation and a trade, and when they got out, they could work in productive society. We did have a furniture factory, where inmates made furniture for schools, libraries and public buildings around the state," Craemer said.
Visitors to the museum must go through extensive security and check in the same as they would if they were visiting the prison. Upon clearing through security, they are directed to the museum.
"Sometimes there is a tour, and they'll all come in. Sometimes people come in and say they are from North Carolina or Utah and read about the museum and wanted to come see it. I've had some law groups come in to see the prison. It is just there for the curious to come and see how the prison was and how it is today," Craemer said.
Craemer encourages visitors to come see the museum because of its location, which he believes provides unique insight into California's history with state prisons and criminal justice.
The museum "is sharing the history of the institution that has been there since 1852 with the public," Craemer said.
