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As Washington prepared for the inauguration of President Benjamin Harrison, work-house prisoners were pressed into service to clean the city. In this cover image for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, artist Charles Upham placed the laborers in striped prison uniforms and a variety of hats in the foreground, sweeping one of the main thoroughfares leading to the Capitol. In the late 19th century most streets in Washington were unpaved. One of the first paved streets in the nation was the inaugural parade route of Pennsylvania Avenue, covered in asphalt only the decade before.
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “Washington, DC - Preparing for the Inauguration - Work House Prisoners Cleaning East Capitol Street,” https://history.house.gov/Collection/Listing/2010/2010-114-003/ (March 07, 2021)
Office of the Historian
Office of Art and Archives
Attic, Thomas Jefferson Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 226-1300
