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Sev enteen •————————————• The Redemption Dance After Novak was imprisoned, his family, which had lost thousands of dollars through his poor investments, shady business dealings, and a mountain of legal fees incurred in the case, barely managed to eke out an existence. In 1901, a story broke that Mary Novak was preparing to file a petition for divorce. Struggling to support her two young boys, she had converted her small home into a boarding house, and had allegedly fallen in love with one of the boarders. Another article quickly dismissed this story as merely an “ugly rumor,” and no divorce suit was filed, but Mary’s brother, Joseph Shunka, who had worked with Frank Novak at Walford, was arrested for firing five shots at his sister’s alleged lover, hitting him once. As a result, Shunka was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to two years in prison.1 Meantime, at Anamosa, Novak became more used to life in the Colony. In addition to his work duties, he had organized a prison orchestra and served as the group’s conductor and first violinist. His good behavior, after the fight in 1898, had earned him a transfer from the backbreaking work on the spall pile to light administrative duties. Novak was now employed in the records department, logging in the prisoners when they arrived at Anamosa and assisting in the Bertillon method of measuring and categorizing each new inmate. Since photography was part of this system, he learned the process from another convict named John Bellew, a man from Webster County, Iowa, who operated the bulky wooden portrait camera, The Redemption Dance 195 developed the negatives, and then made prints for the files. Bellew took three photographs of each prisoner—one in civilian clothes plus one front and one side view in a plaid prison uniform.2 Besides being responsible for these pictures, Bellew snapped other photographs of the prison buildings as well as the town of Anamosa itself, along with many casual photos of inmates and guards. He was well liked by the prisoners and possessed considerable skills in the art of photography.3 Paroled in 1902, Bellew used these skills to open a photography studio in Woodbury County, Iowa.4 Frank Novak then became the photographer at Anamosa. Although he still employed the antiquated Bertillon system of classification, he spent considerable time carefully photographing each new inmate.5 By then, the prisoners had begun to reap the benefits of Warden Hunter’s progressive system of rewards for good behavior. The Prison Press, a newspaper that the prisoners had started shortly after Hunter became warden, was thriving and was sold on a subscription basis to prisoners at seventy-­ five-­ cents per year or forty cents for six months. One of several newspapers in the country that was written and printed solely by inmates, the Prison Press was an attempt to keep the men and women inside informed of world events. The news­ paper also contained religious readings, blurbs about various prisoners, and bits of folksy advice that resembled a “Dear Abby” column. One frequent contributor to the Prison Press was the recently appointed photographer. While he was photographing new prisoners, Novak was constantly thinking of other pictures he could take inside the prison walls. His omnipresence became something of a joke among the inmates and guards, who watched him constantly roaming the prison grounds with his camera, taking portraits and documenting prison life. In 1903, when a group of tourists passed through the prison—by then, two railroad spur lines brought visitors into the grounds—the ubiquitous Novak was among the inmates who took photographs of the trains and passengers. It seemed that “Frank and his box” were everywhere.6 Eventually, the warden trusted Novak 196 t h e w h i t e pa l a c e a n d t h e f o r t enough to let him amble outside the penitentiary walls, where he shot more photographs of the prison. One of his pictures of the administrative building was praised in the prison newspaper as “sharp and well-­ developed and suitable for framing. It appears,” the Prison Press reporter added, “that Frank has found his work, for the pictures are far superior to much of the work done [by photographers] outside.”7 Over the years, Warden Hunter had grown fond of Novak and wished to show him off as a model prisoner, someone who had done well under Anamosa’s grading system. Hunter made...

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