Join us at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site (ESPHS) as we commemorate Memorial Day and the ways we remember the history of Eastern State.

As part of National Historic Preservation Month, this Memorial Day Weekend, we invite you to explore Eastern State as a place of remembrance, bearing witness to the complex and deeply human stories that shaped its history and continue to shape its present as a museum. What do we choose to highlight? Whose stories are remembered, and how do physical traces—reshape our understanding of the past?

Join us in honoring the legacy of this building, preserving stories, and reflecting on the power of memory in our shared future.

All special programming detailed below is included with daytime admission to the historic site.

Scheduled Events:

12:00 PM - A Memorial to Preserve

Join this annual conversation with early site advocates Sally Elk and Kenneth Finkel, moderated by Senior Director of Learning and Engagement Lauren Zalut. Discover the compelling story of how Eastern State was rescued from decay and transformed into a powerful place of reflection and public memory.

1:00 PM and 2:00 PM: Collections Conversation and "What Is It?" Game

Join Erica Harman, curator of this month's mini-exhibit for a 15-minute talk on the importance of conserving Eastern State's artifacts and the stories embedded in them as part of memorial work. Stay to take your best guess at what some of the artifacts are and win a prize!

Ongoing Programming:

World War I Memorial Talks – Daily, select times – ask a staff member!

Pause at Eastern State's World War I plaque for short talks about the men commemorated there—incarcerated individuals and staff who served and sacrificed. Additional reflections throughout the site highlight wartime efforts within the prison.

Mini-Tours of Cellblock 14 – Daily, select times – ask a staff member!

Participate in exclusive mini-tours through Cellblock 14 led by Educators —spaces that echo the lives of incarcerated people and staff. This space, closed to the public until now, is now preserved as a site of memory.

Al Capone Pop-Up Talks – Daily, select times – ask a staff member!

Al Capone's 1929 stay at Eastern State Penitentiary has become the stuff of legend—but how much of it is true? This talk separates fact from fiction, exploring Capone's actual arrest, the debate over his supposedly luxurious cell, and how media and myth have shaped his legacy. Learn what recent discoveries—like a possible 19th-century mural—reveal about the real history behind one of Eastern State's most famous spaces.

Recreating History, Guided by Memory – Daily, self-guided

Walk the original tour paths of Eastern State with a self-guided experience connecting the past with the present—honoring how remembrance shapes our understanding of justice and humanity.

Talk Back Walls: Share a Memory, Leave a Tribute – Daily, self-guided

Add your voice to the ongoing memory of Eastern State. Share reflections or tributes to those who lived and served here.

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