American Antiquarian Society
185 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA 01609
United States
Get a look at the world of crime and punishment in Worcester during the late 1800s in this drop-in Chat with a Curator program.
In 2025 the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office donated to AAS approximately 100,000 records, dating mostly from 1860 to 1900. They include writs and mittimuses, legal documents specifying court orders or warrants for people taken into custody for a crime, as well as ledger books containing the register of “Prisoners Confined to the Worcester Jail,” and solitary confinement and medical records. These oversized books include details―such as name, age, gender, height, complexion, literacy level, and crimes committed―for thousands of individuals. With information that might not be available anywhere else, the records reveal attitudes about childhood, the treatment of women and immigrants, poverty, drinking and work ethics, incarceration practices, or daily life in central Massachusetts during the Civil War.
During the program, participants will be able to peruse a variety of jail records and talk with Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis and AAS Curator of Manuscripts Ashley Cataldo.
Funding for the preservation of the Worcester County jail records has been provided by a grant from the city of Worcester's Community Preservation Committee (CPC).
Curator of Manuscripts Ashley Cataldo is responsible for selecting, cataloging, and making accessible the AAS's collection of diaries, correspondence, and other papers. She holds an MA in English from Clark University, where she has also pursued graduate work toward a PhD in history. Cataldo has published articles on early American bookbinding, presented on seventeenth-century manuscript culture, and is interested in the intersection of information studies and the environmental humanities.
Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis was elected Worcester County Sheriff on November 2, 2010. Since then, Sheriff Evangelidis has remained committed to running the Sheriff’s Department based on the mission of professionalism and public safety. As Sheriff, Evangelidis has increased the correctional officer hiring standards, serves as the only Sheriff in Massachusetts who does not accept political contributions from employees or their spouses, and has introduced innovative inmate programming to promote rehabilitation and reduce rates of recidivism.
After graduating from Temple University’s Law School in 1987, Evangelidis served as an Assistant State Attorney in Florida and an Assistant District Attorney in Massachusetts. He then practiced law in the private sector for over 20 years. Evangelidis also served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 2002-2010. In addition to being Sheriff, Evangelidis serves on the Massachusetts Port Authority Board of Directors and the Worcester County Opioid Task Force.
Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis is honored to serve as Sheriff in the largest county in Massachusetts, comprised of 60 towns and over 850,000 residents.