Trivia 9-14-16 Prison

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This CW prison was dismantled brick by brick and reassembled elsewhere for a much-later exhibition. Afterward, the re-build survived into the 1900s asa museum, and it is said that many of the bricks were reclaimed yet again to build a civic arena in the town.

What Prison, what town and why there?

credit: @saddlebum92
 
Richmond's Libby Prison was brought to Chicago by Charles Gunther for use as a museum and to store his Civil War collection. He opened Libby to the public in Chicago on September 20, 1889. Chicago's citizens had tried to bring other historical buildings there but had not been successful.

The facade of the prison was later included in the building of the Chicago Coliseum on this site and when that came down in 1982 it ended up going to the Historical Society among some of the objects it had once housed.

http://www.mdgorman.com/Prisons/Libby/the_selling_of_libby_prison.htm
 
What Prison---Libby

What town-- Chicago

Why there--But the life of Libby Prison was not over. In 1888, W.H. Gray, an entrepreneur from Chicago, discovered the building and declared it a historical landmark that should be moved to “the chief city of the state which produced the great president who bore the mental and political burden of the struggle and the great general who brought it to a victorious issue.”

http://www.historynet.com/they-paid-to-enter-libby-prison-february-1999-civil-war-times-feature.htm
 
Libby prison, in Richmond, Virginia, was deconstructed brick by brick (600,000 in all) and was moved to Chicago. Why? Because Charles Gunther, an ex-Confederate, and a wealthy candy manufacturer, who had the largest civil war relic collection at the time, decided that since he had a chisel used to construct an escape tunnel at Libby Prison, that he needed to buy the prison to make a museum to house the chisel?

https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage118/
 
But the life of Libby Prison was not over. In 1888, W.H. Gray, an entrepreneur from Chicago, discovered the building and declared it a historical landmark that should be moved to “the chief city of the state which produced the great president who bore the mental and political burden of the struggle and the great general who brought it to a victorious issue.”

Whatever the logic behind moving the prison from Richmond to Chicago to honor Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, both of whom had lived in Illinois, the prospect of sharing in the economic windfall of the coming World’s Columbian Exposition was clear. Scheduled for 1893 in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s historic voyage, the exposition of 150 buildings of Romanesque, Greek, and Renaissance architecture on 600 acres would draw 27 million people to Chicago from all over the globe.

Source: http://www.historynet.com/they-paid-to-enter-libby-prison-february-1999-civil-war-times-feature.htm
 
Libby Prison was first in Richmond, VA, but moved to Chicago, Illinois.
But the life of Libby Prison was not over. In 1888, W.H. Gray, an entrepreneur from Chicago, discovered the building and declared it a historical landmark that should be moved to “the chief city of the state which produced the great president who bore the mental and political burden of the struggle and the great general who brought it to a victorious issue.”
source-http://www.historynet.com/they-paid-to-enter-libby-prison-february-1999-civil-war-times-feature.htm
 
Answer: Libby Prison originally in Richmond, VA- moved to Chicago, IL- to house the ACW collection (and other collectibles) of Charles F. Gunther to serve as an ACW Museum

The building was originally built in 1845 to serve as a warehouse. In April 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visited Richmond, Virginia and toured the city on foot. When he came across Libby Prison, a crowd of onlookers stated "We will tear it down", to which Lincoln replied, "No, leave it as a monument."
The structure was moved to Chicago in 1889 to serve as a war museum. It was dismantled in 1899, with its pieces sold as souvenirs. In 1907, nails from Libby prison were reportedly melted down and used to cast the Pokahuntas Bell for the Jamestown Exposition. The front door of Libby Prison is currently on display in the museum at The American Civil War Center, located at the former Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond.
source: http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Libby_Prison

Candy manufacturer and collector Charles F. Gunther had amassed a fortune, and began purchasing historical artifacts to display in his factory. Many of these were artifacts from the Civil War, but there were also more unusual items in his collection, such as shrunken heads. Gunther even claimed to own the skin of the serpent from the Garden of Eden and the mummy of Moses' foster mother, Bithiah (both assumed to be fakes). One of Gunther's most important authentic items was Abraham Lincoln's deathbed, which he purchased in 1877. Gunther's collection continued to grow, and he eventually turned his sights to the Libby Prison, a former Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia. Gunther purchased the structure and had it dismantled and shipped to Chicago, where it was reassembled and converted into a museum to house Gunther's artifacts.

By the late 1890s, the museum was not doing very well, and a group of investors organized to find a way to re-use old Gothic prison building.An earlier Coliseum hall burned down in 1897, so the investors decided to convert the Civil War museum into a new hall for sports, political rallies, and other special events.President William McKinley dedicated the new Chicago Coliseum in August of 1900, and it soon hosted Wild West shows, political conventions, track and field and other sports events.The Coliseum remained in operation until 1982.
source: http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Coliseum-Park/
 
Libby Prison was a Confederate prison at Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. It gained an infamous reputation for the overcrowded and harsh conditions under which officer prisoners from the Union Army were kept. Prisoners suffered from disease, malnutrition and a high mortality rate. By 1863, one thousand prisoners were crowded into large open rooms on two floors, with open, barred windows leaving them exposed to weather and temperature extremes.

The building was built before the war as a food warehouse. The structure was moved to Chicago in 1889 to serve as a war museum. It was dismantled in 1899, with its pieces sold as souvenirs.[1]
 
The Libby prison was dismantled and shipped to Chicago where it was reconstructed as a museum
(Hmmm, I knew the first two bits but never had bothered to learn the purpose)

When Charles Gunther was running a confectionary on State Street in the late 1800s, he displayed in his shop a collection of Civil War memorabilia. But he had something bigger in mind. Much, much bigger.


In 1889, Gunther purchased, shipped by rail to Chicago, and had rebuilt here an entire Civil War prison from Richmond, Virginia. He added a flamboyant medieval castle wall for showbiz effect. And he opened the doors of the Libby Prison War Museum, an attraction that was part history museum, part P. T. Barnum-style attraction.
http://interactive.wttw.com/timemachine/libby-prison-and-coliseum
http://interactive.wttw.com/timemachine/libby-prison-and-coliseum

The website goes on to say:

When the flames of Civil War nostalgia grew cold at the turn of the 20th century, the ever-enterprising Gunther converted his building into a 15,000-seat auditorium that saw several more decades of spectacles: the city’s earliest auto shows, convenient to Chicago’s Motor Row, in which the Coliseum was ensconced;

PP19_6.jpg


the First Ward Ball, an annual tradition in which politicians received honoraria from grateful citizens; six major national political conventions; expos of all kinds; roller derby competitions; and, in its later days, rock shows including the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream.


The last show played in 1971 and the building was demolished in 1982.


 

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This CW prison was dismantled brick by brick and reassembled elsewhere for a much-later exhibition. Afterward, the re-build survived into the 1900s asa museum, and it is said that many of the bricks were reclaimed yet again to build a civic arena in the town.

What Prison, what town and why there?

Libby Prison
Chicago
Because it was the chief city of the state which produced the great president who bore the mental and political burden of the struggle and the great general who brought it to a victorious issue. It was also a big draw during the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893
 
What Prison? Libby Prison

What town? It was dismantled from Richmond and reassembled in Chicago.

Why there? Charles F. Gunther became a wealthy confectioner in Chicago when he introduced caramel to the US. He used his wealth to become a collector of Civil War artifacts including Lincoln's death bed. He relocated Libby prison in the 1880's to Chi-town as a museum to house his collection. When attendance lagged it was torn down and some bricks used to rebuild the Chicago Coliseum. His collection was donated/purchased by the Chicago Historical Society and eventually found a home at the Chicago History Museum.
 
Richmond's Libby Prison. In 1888 a group of Chicago businessmen formed the Libby Prison War Museum Corporation. In April 1889 the building was disassembled, hauled to Chicago's central business district, and reassembled. It became a Civil War museum which attracted thousands, especialy during the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. However, this source doesn't say the museum was built specifically for the exposition. (See below for another source with more info about the museum which answers the "Why there?")
https://books.google.com/books?id=9...l war prison disassembled/reassembled&f=false

http://www.historynet.com/they-paid-to-enter-libby-prison-february-1999-civil-war-times-feature.htm, states, that in addition to honoring Lincoln and Grant, the main purpose was the upcoming Columbian Exposition. This last article has quite a bit about the museum and the later arena built in its place (demolished 1981).
 
Moved from Richmond to Chicago and rebuilt as the Libby Prison Museum Association, T/A GREAT LIBBY PRISON WAR MUSEUM, on 4 February 1888. The Museum was highly profitable and continued so until 1899. At that time the venture was disbanded and the Coliseum erected on the site. Many of the bricks were disposed of as souvenirs and to builders. A large number went to the Chicago Historical Society, along with the collection and other parts of the building. The Society constructed the north wall of their Civil War Room from these bricks. This building is located at North Avenue and Clark St., Chicago.
Source: http://www.censusdiggins.com/prison_libby.html
 
-Libby Prison
-Chicago
-"Whatever the logic behind moving the prison from Richmond to Chicago to honor Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, both of whom had lived in Illinois, the prospect of sharing in the economic windfall of the coming World’s Columbian Exposition was clear. Scheduled for 1893 in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s historic voyage, the exposition of 150 buildings of Romanesque, Greek, and Renaissance architecture on 600 acres would draw 27 million people to Chicago from all over the globe'
https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage118/
http://www.historynet.com/they-paid-to-enter-libby-prison-february-1999-civil-war-times-feature.htm
 
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