Spring Break: The Great Escape: Stories of Resistance and Creativity at Eastern State
Friday, March 27 - Sunday, April 05, 2026
All Day
A Week of Immersive History, Storytelling, and Hands-On Discovery.
This Spring Break, Eastern State invites visitors to explore powerful stories of resilience, creativity, and resistance within one of America’s most influential prisons, and to reflect on what those stories mean for our communities today.
Through interactive tours, pop-up talks, music, poetry, and hands-on activities, Spring Break at Eastern State examines how incarcerated people have used creativity and ingenuity, art, faith, and humor in a system designed to contain, control, and isolate.
Through these interactive programs, visitors will learn the powerful and fascinating stories of escape and resistance at Eastern State.
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Mini Tour: The Speakeasy: Prohibition, Temperance & Sound
Available daily, times vary
In this short, immersive experience, you'll be transported to the 1920s, a period shaped by the Temperance Movement’s call for moral reform and Prohibition—the federal government’s sweeping ban on alcohol.Encounter the sounds and stories of bootleggers and clandestine musicians whose performances animated hidden rooms, built community, and quietly challenged a rapidly expanding system of surveillance and control. Reflect on how sound, storytelling, and shared experience became powerful tools for connection, identity, and endurance.
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Pop-Up Talk: Al Capone & Policing in Prohibition-Era America
Available daily, times vary
In this short pop-up talk, you'll hear about Al Capone’s arrest and imprisonment, learn about the broader rise of Prohibition-era policing practices—including early forms of stop-and-frisk—,and consider how those systems shaped Philadelphia and American law enforcement and community relations. -
Mini Tour: The Tunnel Story: Ingenuity, Surveillance, and Control
Available daily, times vary
Eastern State Penitentiary saw hundreds of escape attempts throughout its history. Though these escapes are often dramatic and sensationalized parts of the prison’s history, they can also reveal deeply human stories of resistance from the people incarcerated here.On this Mini Tour, you'll learn about the three means of escape—over the wall, under the wall, or through the gatehouse—and hear the stories of Latitia Kennard in 1840, William Cripy in 1852, Leo Callahan in 1923, and the famous 1945 tunnel escape involving Clarence Klinedinst and “Slick Willie” Sutton.
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Interactive Activity: Secret Letter Delivery
Available daily, times vary
In this sitewide interactive activity inspired by historical communication networks inside prisons, visitors explore coded language and symbolism in music and letters. Follow clues to deliver “letters” between secret locations around the site, learning how incarcerated people found creative ways to maintain communication, preserve relationships, and share news. Complete the route and you’ll receive a reward!
All Spring Break activities are included with admission.
About the Panelists:
We strive to make the penitentiary and our site, programs, and exhibits accessible to all visitors. Click here to learn more about accessibility and accommodations at ESPHS.
This program is part of A Time for Liberty: Our Shared History, Our Shared Future, a yearlong slate of free, inclusive programs exploring the evolving meanings of liberty and justice in America. A Time for Liberty is made possible with support from civic and cultural partners including the City of Philadelphia, America250PA, Campus250, the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial, the Philadelphia City Fund’s 2026 Milestone Grant Fund, supported by PECO, the National Trust Preservation Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program series, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
