 |
Register Subscribe Login |
| 1. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1853, April Narrative of Law and Crime Magazine page Google Books Published in Law and Crime, April, 1853, p.87. An Improvement in the Cleans for the Detection of Crime has been introduced by Mr. Gardener, governor of the Bristol City and County Gaol. The descriptions in the "Hue and Cry," &c., of notorious prisoners in custody, with the view of learning their antecedents, &c., having been found most defective in practice, Mr. Gardener has introduced the system of taking multiplied copies of daguerreotype likenesses of notorious offenders in custody, which, with written descriptions of the prisoners, are forwarded to the principal gaols and police-stations in the kingdom. As daguerreotype likenesses of the most accurate character can be now taken on paper, the only expense is the trifling cost of the apparatus. The first likenesses taken in the gaol by this process were those of a notorious burglar, an utterer of forged Bank of England notes, and a female criminal suspected of having been long "wanted" in other parts of the kingdom, and they were despatched to various gaols, &c., in the northern and midland districts. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1863, 24 April Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on Prison Discipline - J.A. Gardner, Bristol Goal Book page Google Books Published in "The Sessional Papers Printed by Order of The House of Lords", Session 1863, 26 & 27 Victoria, Vol.XXXIII, Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on Prison Discipline, 24th April 1863, Paragraphs: 3582-3595 The person being examined by the Select Committee was James Anthony Gardner, Esq. who when governor of the Bristol City and County Goal in Great Britain was one of the first to take portraits of prisoners. 3582. Chairman.] Are you aware of the difficulty which very often arises in law courts in identifying a previously convicted prisoner? I am. 3583. Have you ever considered, or have you ever adopted, any scheme by which previously convicted prisoners may be more completely identified ? I introduced some years ago (indeed I was the first who introduced them) the daguerreotype portraits of the prisoners, and from having succeeded in one or two cases, we introduced it more freely; we now take a large number of portraits, and I think it would be very difficult for a man to escape detection in our gaol. I take a stereoscopic picture, instead of a plain portrait, and I request the parties to whom I send it to put it into the stereoscope; they have a better opportunity of seeing the man before them standing out in relief. 3584. Do you take a portrait of every prisoner who is committed to your gaol? We do not. I do it myself, and I have no time to take so many. We merely take portraits of those whom we do not know railway thieves, and strangers to the city, who are taken up for picking pockets at the railway stations and in railway carriages. 3585. Have you found the practical advantages of that system? Yes, I have found out a great many by that means. On one occasion I recollect an officer of mine being offered a large sum of money by the wife of a prisoner to release him. He was offered 100l. This was reported to me; and I thought that as the man had only three months more to serve, he certainly must be wanting somewhere else. I took his portrait directly, and sent it round to perhaps 40 or 50 different gaols, and he was recognised at last at Dover. I had an order from the Secretary of State to remove him, instead of discharging him. I removed him on a Friday, and on the following Friday he was sentenced to 15 years' transportation for highway robbery. 3586. Have you had other instances of the same sort? Yes, many. 3587. Did the judge who presided at the trial make any comment upon that? I do not know. I was not there at the time; but it was entirely through the portrait that he was recognised. 3588. Are you of opinion that if the system were more extensively carried out, of taking photographic portraits of all the different prisoners in the different prisons, and if communication took place between the governors of the different gaols, that would lead to the identification of a vast number of previously convicted prisoners ? Yes; and, if it was well carried out, I think it would be almost impossible for a man to escape. 3589. Would there be any practical difficulty in carrying it out? None whatever. 3590. Will you put in evidence a return of the form which you use in forwarding the photograph of a prisoner? Yes. This was the form (producing the same) which I introduced at the time when I commenced the system of taking photographs of the prisoners. I was the first who introduced it, and I have got it introduced into perhaps 20 or 25 gaols, and they all adopt this plan. A portrait is the best part of a man's description; and if it is well taken, and particularly one this size, it is almost impossible to mistake the features of the man. 3591. Earl of Dudley.] You say lhat there is no difficulty about taking the photographs of the men. I presume you mean that, practically, they have not refused to let them be taken? They have not. But I have taken them walking, unknown to them. 3592. A prisoner, by closing his eyes and distorting his features, and moving during the seconds of time that the portrait is being taken, would destroy the likeness, would he not? I have never met with but one who did that, and I took that man's portrait when he was walking. In order to try the experiment, I took out one of my domestic servants into the garden, who was placed at a certain point of the path where it was not possible to see the camera, and at a long distance. I found after some time that I succeeded very well; and I told the officer to come to me with the man; the moment he came there I pulled out the slide, and succeeded in a second; it was quite good enough to catch the man by. 3593. Supposing there is any opposition to your doing it, you have the means of carrying it out? Yes. I could take a man through a small aperture; I do not think there would be very much difficulty in getting him to sit. You may now and then meet with a man like the one I have referred to, but you might catch an opportunity, or you might build a place for the purpose. 3594. Chairman.] Do the prisoners themselves dread being photographed? They have frequently said to me, " I know what you are at; I have been in gaol; I will tell you all about it"; and I have told them that they need not tell me, as it might be used against them; and upon that I have taken the portrait. 3595. Is not the cost of the apparatus very trifling? It is a very trifling sum; but it would be quite as well to have a good one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3. |  | 1858, 11 January Carmarthen Register of Felons: entry for James Jones, resident of Llanllwni, committed on 11 January 1858 Prison register Carmarthenshire Archives Service Carmarthenshire Archives Service (Item reference: ACC 4916). Gathering the Jewels: The website for Welsh heritage and culture (www.gtj.org.uk, Item reference:: GTJ09759) James Jones, a twenty-eight year old weaver, was tried at the court of assizes for assaulting and attempting to murder Margaret Jones. He was sentenced to death by hanging and his body was to be buried within the precincts of the prison. The sentenced was later reduced to penal servitude for life. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4. |  | Mathew B. Brady 1846 C.B. Book page Cornell University Library Sampson, M. B. Rationale of Crime, and Its Appropriate Treatment: Being a Treatise on Criminal Jurisprudence Considered in Relation to Cerebral Organization (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1846). The popular 19th-century pseudo-science of phrenology held that the shape of the skull was related to character and behavior. Prison reformer Eliza Farnham, an advocate of phrenology, edited this work on crime and criminals. The engravings were made from some of the earliest Mathew Brady daguerreotypes. Farnham's preface acknowledges the contribution of "Mr. Brady, to whose indefatigable patience with a class of the most difficult of all sitters, is due the advantage of a very accurate set of daguerreotypes." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5. |  | Samuel G. Szabo 1860 (ca) Rogues, a Study of Characters Salted paper prints from glass negatives 8.8 x 6.6 cm (3 7/16 x 2 5/8 ins) to 11.5 x 8.8 cm (4 1/2 x 3 7/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.551 (1-45) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6. |  | Samuel G. Szabo 1860 (ca) Rogues, a Study of Characters Salted paper prints from glass negatives 8.8 x 6.6 cm (3 7/16 x 2 5/8 ins) to 11.5 x 8.8 cm (4 1/2 x 3 7/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.551 (1-45) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7. |  | Samuel G. Szabo 1860 (ca) Rogues, a Study of Characters Salted paper prints from glass negatives 8.8 x 6.6 cm (3 7/16 x 2 5/8 ins) to 11.5 x 8.8 cm (4 1/2 x 3 7/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.551 (1-45) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8. |  | Samuel G. Szabo 1860 (ca) Rogues, a Study of Characters Salted paper prints from glass negatives 8.8 x 6.6 cm (3 7/16 x 2 5/8 ins) to 11.5 x 8.8 cm (4 1/2 x 3 7/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.551 (1-45) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9. |  | Samuel G. Szabo 1860 (ca) Rogues, a Study of Characters Salted paper prints from glass negatives 8.8 x 6.6 cm (3 7/16 x 2 5/8 ins) to 11.5 x 8.8 cm (4 1/2 x 3 7/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.551 (1-45) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10. |  | Samuel G. Szabo 1860 (ca) Rogues, a Study of Characters Salted paper prints from glass negatives 8.8 x 6.6 cm (3 7/16 x 2 5/8 ins) to 11.5 x 8.8 cm (4 1/2 x 3 7/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.551 (1-45) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11. |  | Samuel G. Szabo 1860 (ca) Rogues, a Study of Characters Salted paper prints from glass negatives 8.8 x 6.6 cm (3 7/16 x 2 5/8 ins) to 11.5 x 8.8 cm (4 1/2 x 3 7/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.551 (1-45) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12. |  | Unidentified photographer 1866 Jerh. Donovan Rossa ; Bryan Dillon ; Thomas Duggan ; Chas. Underwood O'Connell. [Thomas A. Larcom photographs collection, 1857-1866 [Mountjoy Prison], Volume 2, 1866, Plate 80] Album page NYPL - New York Public Library Courtesy of The New York Public Library www.nypl.org, Image ID: 1111428 The two albums originally belonged to Sir Thomas Aiskew Larcom (1801-1879), the permanent Under Secretary for Ireland from 1853 to 1869, which includes the period covered by the albums. Harriet Fyffe Richardson (b.1872), author of Pioneer Quakers (1940), provided the albums to Stanford University at an unknown date; New York Public Library acquired them in 1953. The 1866 volume is slightly larger than 10 x 8 inches, and contains rectangular albumen prints, also about 4 x 3 inches, mounted four to a page with individual captions. Laid inside the second volume is a letter from the photographer (whose signature is illegible) to Larcom: "You asked me some months ago to get you the photographs of the convicted and untried political prisoners who have been confined in Mountjoy. // I now send you a most unique 'Book of Beauty' . . . The camera is bad, but I am about to get a better, a really good one." Identified as felons and Fenian political prisoners, the subjects of the photographs in these two albums include some of the leaders of the Fenian Brotherhood and its Irish wing, the Irish Republican Brotherhood. One of these, the early activist Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (1831-1915), recounted sitting for his portrait: After being shaven I was led to have my picture taken. The photographer had a large black-painted pasteboard prepared, with my name across it in white, and, pinning it across my breast, he sat me in position. I remained sitting and looking according to instructions until he had done, and he never had the manners to tell-what artists never fail to tell me-that I made an exceedingly good picture. [O'Donovan Rossa's prison life: six years in six English prisons (1874) p.73] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13. |  | Unidentified photographer 1866 Jerh. Donovan Rossa [Thomas A. Larcom photographs collection, 1857-1866 [Mountjoy Prison], Volume 2, 1866, Plate 80] Album page, detail NYPL - New York Public Library Courtesy of The New York Public Library www.nypl.org, Image ID: 1111428 The two albums originally belonged to Sir Thomas Aiskew Larcom (1801-1879), the permanent Under Secretary for Ireland from 1853 to 1869, which includes the period covered by the albums. Harriet Fyffe Richardson (b.1872), author of Pioneer Quakers (1940), provided the albums to Stanford University at an unknown date; New York Public Library acquired them in 1953. The 1866 volume is slightly larger than 10 x 8 inches, and contains rectangular albumen prints, also about 4 x 3 inches, mounted four to a page with individual captions. Laid inside the second volume is a letter from the photographer (whose signature is illegible) to Larcom: "You asked me some months ago to get you the photographs of the convicted and untried political prisoners who have been confined in Mountjoy. // I now send you a most unique 'Book of Beauty' . . . The camera is bad, but I am about to get a better, a really good one." Identified as felons and Fenian political prisoners, the subjects of the photographs in these two albums include some of the leaders of the Fenian Brotherhood and its Irish wing, the Irish Republican Brotherhood. One of these, the early activist Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (1831-1915), recounted sitting for his portrait: After being shaven I was led to have my picture taken. The photographer had a large black-painted pasteboard prepared, with my name across it in white, and, pinning it across my breast, he sat me in position. I remained sitting and looking according to instructions until he had done, and he never had the manners to tell-what artists never fail to tell me-that I made an exceedingly good picture. [O'Donovan Rossa's prison life: six years in six English prisons (1874) p.73] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14. |  | J.E. Mayall 1869 Use of carte-de-visites to support police investigations Book page Google Books Published in "Subtle brains and lissom fingers: Being some of the chisel-marks of our Industrial and Scientific Progress. And Other Papers" by Andrew Wynter, (Third edition, London: Robert Hardwicke, 1869) p.310-311 The universality of the carte-de-visite portrait has had the effect of making the public thoroughly acquainted with all its remarkable men. We know their personality long before we see them. Even the cartes de visite of comparatively unknown persons so completely picture their appearance, that when we meet the originals we seem to have some acquaintance with them. "I know that face, somehow," is the instinctive cogitation, and then we recall the portrait we have a day or two past seen in the windows. As we all know, the value of the photographic portrait has long been understood by the police, and known thieves have the honour of a picture-gallery of their own in Scotland Yard, to which we shall refer in some future paper; but the photograph is also useful for rogues as yet uncaptured and uncondemned. Thus, when Redpath absconded, it was immediately suspected that a negative of him must be lodged at some of our photographers. The inquiry was made, and one of them was found in Mr. Mayall's possession. An order was given for a supply to the detective force, and through its instrumentality the delinquent, though much disguised, was arrested on board a steamer sailing from some port in the North of Europe. [The article "Cartes de Visite" was also published in "Once a Week", Volume 6, Jan 25, 1862, p.134-137 and in "The Living Age", Volume 72, 1862, p.676] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15. |  | Henry Clarke 1869 (ca) Number 14, elderly man wearing checkered uniform, in restraint chair Albumen print (?) Wellcome Collection Wellcome Library, London (L0019069, Library reference no.: Iconographic Collection 347834) Patients at the West Riding Lunatic Asylum, Wakefield, Yorkshire. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16. |  | Henry Clarke 1869 (ca) Presumed inmate at Wakefield prison, Wakefield, York. Carte de visite Wellcome Collection Wellcome Library, London (L0019070) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17. |  | Henry Clarke 1869 (ca) Number 17, young man restrained by two warders. Carte de visite Wellcome Collection Wellcome Library, London (L0019072, Library reference no.: Iconographic Collection 347834 ) Patients at the West Riding Lunatic Asylum, Wakefield, Yorkshire. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1871 Prevention of Crime Act 1871, Section 6 - Register of Criminals Magazine page Google Books The Law Times, Volume 51 - liv Statutes, 34 & 35 VICT. C.112 - Oct. 28, 1871. 6. Register and photographing of criminals. The following enactments shall be mode with a view to facilitate the identification of criminals: (1.) Registers of all persons convicted of crime in the United Kingdom shall be kept in such form and containing such particulars as may from time to time be prescribed, in Great Britain by one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, and in Ireland by the Lord Lieutenant: (2.) The register for England shall bo kept in London under the management of the Commissioner of Police of the metropolis, or such other person as the Secretary of State may appoint: (8.) The register for Scotland shall be kept in Edinburgh under the management of the secretary to the managers of the general prison at Perth, or such other person as the Secretary of State may appoint: (4.) The register for Ireland shall be kept in Dublin under the management of the Commissioners of Police for the police district of Dublin metropolis, or such other person as the Lord Lieutenant may from time to time appoint (5.) In every prison, the gaoler or other governor of the prison shall make returns of the parsons convieted of crime and coming within his custody; and such returns shall be in such form or formas and contain such particulars in Great Britain as the Secretary of State, and in Ireland as the said Lord Lieutenant, may require; and every gaoler or other governor of a prison who refuses or neglects to transmit such-returns, or wilfully transmits a return containing any false or imperfect statement, shall for every such offence forfeit a sum not exceeding twenty pounds, to be recovered summarily: (6.) In Great Britain the Secretary of Slate, and in Ireland the said Lord Lieutenant, may make regulations as to the photographing of all prisoners convicted of crime who may for the time being be confined in any prison in Great Britain or Ireland, and may in such regulations prescribe the time or times at which and the manner and dress in which such prisoners are to be taken, and the number of photographs of each prisoner to be printed, and the persons to whom such photographs are to be sent: (7.) Any regulations made by the Secretary of State as to the photographing of prisoners in any prison in England shall be deemed to be regulations for the government of that prison, and binding on all persons, in the same manner as if they were contained in the first schedule annexed to the Prison Act, 1865. (8.) Any regulations made by the Secretary of State as to the photographing of the prisoners in any prison in Scotland shall be deemed to be rules for prisons in Scotland, and as such shall be binding on all whom they may concern, in the same manner as if the same were made under and in virtue of the powers contained in the Prisons (Scotland) Administration Act, 1860: (9.) Any regulations made by the Lord Lieutenant as to the photographing of prisoners in any prison in Ireland shall be doemed to be byelaws duly made by the Lord Lieutenant, and shall be binding on all persons, in the same manner as if the same were made under the authority of the Act passed in the session holden in the nineteenth and twentieth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter sixty-eight: (10.) Any prisoner refusing to obey any regulation made in pursuance of this section shall be deemed guilty of an offence against prison discipline, in England within the meaning of the fifty-seventh regulation in the first schedule annexed to the said Prison Act, 1865, in Scotland within the meaning of the rules for prisons in Scotland, certified under the hand of one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, under and by virtue of the Prisons (Scotland) Administration Act, 1860, and in Ireland within the meaning of the fifteenth regulation contained in section one hundred and nine of the Act passed in the seventh year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Fourth, chapter seventy-four: (11.) Any authority having power to make regulations in pursuance of this section may from time to time modify repeal, or add to any regulations so made: (12.) Any expenses incurred in pursuance of this section shall be defrayed as follows; (that is to say,) The expense of keeping the register in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin shall, to such amount as may be sanctioned by the Treasury, be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament: The expenses incurred in photographing the prisoners in any prison shall be deemed to be part of the expenses incurred in the maintenance of the prison, and shall be defrayed accordingly. This section shall not apply to the prisons for convicts under the superintendence of the directors of convict prisons or to any military or naval prison. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1882 At Millbank Prison Book pages Google Books H. Baden Pritchard The Photographic Studios of Europe (London: Piper & Carter, 1882), p.114-119. AT MILLBANK PRISON. It is a clear morning, but a sharp east wind is blowing over the parapet from the steely Thames, as our hansom carries us quickly along the Embankment. We pass the Abbey, Old Palace Yard, the tall and majestic Victoria Tower, the magnificent stone archway known as the Peers' Entrance, and then, suddenly leaving all these fine buildings and grandeur behind us, enter the narrow street that leads to Millbank. Here we come out upon the river again, and the wind blows more chilly than ever; or is it that solemn fortress-looking building, that pile of grim brick and barred windows, that causes the shivering? There is little time for reflection, for cabby presently pulls up at a massive stone gate, beside a black doorway all studded with bars and bolts. A big round knocker confronts us, for all the word like a heavy iron fetter, but our unsteady hand fails to raise it. "Try the bell, sir," says cabby; who coolly waits to see how we get on, and, in the hope, no doubt, that admission will be refused, speculates about the chance of a fare back. But he is doomed to disapointment. The door opens but slowly, and a little way only, it is true, but it opens sufficiently to show a warder in steel buttons and a shining chain with keys attached to his girdle; he takes the card we thrust into the yawning crevice, and reads it. The card is satisfactory, and in another moment we are standing in the lodge, and indulging in a weak joke about the difficulty of getting into prison. But we are not there yet. Another iron gate has to be unlocked after the first has been carefully shut and we are then at liberty to enter confinement. The shape of Millbank prison is that of a star-fish, the centre being occupied by the governor and various officers, and the radiating wings by the prisoners. We walk, unattended, along a silent and solemn avenue, to the central offices, the dull prison walls on either side, their embrasure-looking windows more like a fortress than ever; there is no noise, and not a soul is to be seen. But we pass by a warder presently, standing in a recess Bo quietly that he quite startles us, and then we go by two others, one of whom has a note-book in which he makes an entry. "We ask our way to the governor's offices; a gesture, rather than words, is the reply we receive. But once in the centre of the establishment, the aspect of affairs changes. You feel that chill wind no longer; there are green leaves and ivy to gaze upon, and dilute sunshine even; you pass through busy workshops and yards where men are at work and at exercise. A cheerful office full of busy clerks is here, and comfortable furniture and a bright fire. There is a savoury smell of lunch about of Irish stew, if we mistake not which exerts quite an appetising effect. One begins to think that a prison is not such a bad place to live in, after all, for a short, a very short time, if if only they did not make such a bother about opening that big black door at the entrance. There is nothing unusual about anybody, now one grows accustomed to the scene. If it were not that the majority of the men were clad in a monotonous grey dress, and the minority wore a dark uniform with steel buttons and steel chains at their side, which have a metallic handcuff ring about them, one might easily mistake Millbank for some other Government establishment, say Portsmouth Dockyard or the Arsenal at Woolwich. Armed with the governor's authority, a guide now leads the way to the photographic studio in which we are interested. He, too, has a steel chain with a pass-key. Here is the glass-house a little erection in a yard by itself. "We enter. It is a model of neatness and cleanliness ; in fact, we unhesitatingly say it is the brighest little studio we have seen in our experience of " At Homes." The floor is as white from scrubbing as the deck of a man-of-war; there is not a tiling out of its place ; not a piece of apparatus is awry or in disorder ; not a speck of dirt is visible. Strips of clean carpet are laid in the gangway, and where the sitter is posed the floor is painted black. What about the lighting? It will be asked. The lighting, we reply, fulfils the requirements of a model studio, as we heard them recently expressed at the establishment of Messrs. Hills and Saunders. A high wall at some distance from the studio, that the sun cannot get over, so that there is little or no necessity for blinds, and the diffused light can be used as you find it. The Millbank studio is not lighted from the north, it is true; but there is plenty of illumination, and it may be employed without stint. The photographer at Millbank is one of the steel-buttoned warders, and we congratulate him on his well-arranged studio. Here are some pictures he has just taken half profile, bold, clear, and vigorous portraits, well lighted, and altogether unlike what prison photographs usually are. There is no 'prentice hand here, and we say so. In reply, our warder unbends his austere manner, and introduces himself as a former acquaintance. He is no other than Corporal Laffeaty, late of the Royal Engineers, an apt pupil of Captain Abney's, and one of the clever Sappers who took part in the Transit of Venus Expedition. The mystery is solved; no wonder the Millbank portraits of late have been so good. A sitter is departing as we arrive a man in ordinary attire, his short, cut-away beard giving him the appearance of a foreigner. Our guide sees our look of astonishment: "He is a liberty man, and is photographed in liberty clothes ; he goes out next week, and has, therefore, been permitted to grow a beard during the past three months;" and on Ihe desk we see a printed form referring to him, to which his photograph will presently be attached. "Seven years' penal servitude, three years' police supervision," we note is upon it. His crime was forgery. What, we ask, if a man refuse to be photographed just before the expiration of his sentence? Our guide smiles: "It is a very simple matter; a man is usually set at liberty before his time, but only if he conforms to our regulations." Our guide leaves us for awhile, and Mr. Laffeaty asks if he shall go on with his work. We reply in the affirmative, and he quits the studio to fetch a sitter. He is not long gone, for there are plenty outside in the yard we have just crossed, men in grey, ambling round the flagged area at a rapid pace at fixed distances from one another, and reminding you vividly of a go-as-you-please race at the Agricultural Hall. He is a young man of stalwart build, the sitter, when he appears, and he is as docile as a dog. He is clean shaven, and has an ugly black L on his sleeve, which means, poor fellow, that he is a "Lifer." There is a wooden arm-chair for posing. ''Look here, I want you to sit clown like this," says our friend the photographer, placing himself sideways in the settle, so as to give a half profile. The convict does as he is told, and evidently enjoys the business immensely. "Don't throw the head back quite so much; there, that will do. Now put up your hands on your breast, so." For the shrewd governor (Captain Harvey), it seems, believes that a photograph of a man's hands is as important almost as that of his face. The warder-photographer retires to coat his plate, and we are left for a moment alone with a "Lifer." "Why shouldn't he make a rush for it, fell us to the earth, and have a try for liberty? He might be a murderer; that he had committed a terrible crime was certain from his sentence. Keep the camera between yourself and the man, and be ready to roar out lustily if he so much as move a muscle, was one precaution that occurred to us ; or should we knock him down at once out of hand before he began any mischief at all? * No such precautionary measures are called for. Indeed, it made one smile to think of such a thing as resistance. One might, perhaps, conjure up such thoughts as these in the presence of an imaginary convict; but the facts here are very commonplace. On the arm chair opposite you sits a young man, almost a boy, with a frank, good-humoured face a poor fellow who is evidently luxuriating in a delightful moment of release from drudging work and monotonous labour. Do what you want him to? Will he be obedient? Why, he would stand on his head to please you and to escape for a few minutes longer his daily toil. And as to bravado and ruffianism; there is just the same difference between the daring robber, and this grey-clad, humble individual, as there is between a fighting cock with his plumes and feathers, and a plucked fowl on the poulterer's counter. Mr. Laffeaty comes back to the docile prisoner, focusses, gives an exposure of fifteen seconds with a wet plate and No. 2B lens, and secures an admirable negative. "I have never had the least difficulty," he tells us, after he has taken back his charge, "either with the men or with the women. The men are apt to be too grave, the women are sometimes given to giggling; that is, perhaps, the only drawback I have to contend against. I never take any full-face portraits in the old style, and I think I have improved the photography itself of late. There was an article in the Photographic News called 'At Home at Scotland Yard' some months ago, and I have taken up several of the hints given there." Mr. Laffeaty has to work very quickly at times, and, as a consequence, develops and fixes at once, without waiting to intensify. The latter operation he does in the light, with a few drops of sulphide of potassium in water, a method which, while ready and effective, does not appear to give too much hardness. We cross the yard once more to make a call on the governor. The grey coats are still hard at it at their go-as-you-please race, except a few men who have fallen out, and standing still with their faces turned to the wall like naughty boys. They have an hour's exercise a day, and some of them seem to be trying to get double the amount out of the time. To Captain Harvey is, in a great measure, due the improvement in photography that has of late distinguished the Millbank establishment. He is good enough to show us several series of pictures. Here is Kurr, of turf swindling notoriety. This long face belongs to Paine, convicted the other day of poisoning a woman with drink, and who, it appears, was one of the men we just now saw exercising in the yard below. Here are the two Stauntons connected with the Penge mystery, and other more or less well-known criminals. All these are "first convictions," who are confined by themselves, and bear a much better character from the warders than the "habitual criminal" class, for whose special behoof photographic portraiture has been provided. It is for the passer of counterfeit coin, the burglar, and the swindler who have little interest for the public, but a great deal for the prison and police authorities that criminal registers are required, to aid the suppression and detection of crime. * We hear afterwards that this convict was arraigned on a charge of murder; but a verdict of manslaughter only was returned. He stabbed a woman with a sharp pipe-stem, wounding her so grievously that she died in twenty minutes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 20. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1882 At Pentonville Penitentiary Book pages Google Books H. Baden Pritchard The Photographic Studios of Europe (London: Piper & Carter, 1882), p.119-123. AT PENTONVILLE PENITENTIARY. A very mistaken notion prevails upon the subject of photographing prisoners. The popular idea is that the prisoners themselves are very unwilling to submit to the ordeal, and usually make all sorts of difficulties and disturbances, sometimes not easily over-ruled. Strange accounts have been published of cunning devices and ingenious tricks practised upon convicts in order to secure a photograph of their features; and we remember seeing, not long ago, a talented picture, the subject of which was an unwilling sitter maintained in position by a couple of stalwart warders, while the photographer did his worst, or rather his best. Such representations work, from the nature of things, a marked impression upon the public mind, and hence is due the impression that the photographing of prisoners is peculiarly troublesome and difficult. But it is the exceptions that the public hear about, and not the ordinary operations. No doubt obstreperous criminals are met with, from time to time, and no doubt, too, the photographer has often his work to do over and over again ; but some little experience has shown us that a more docile body of sitters than our convicts do not exist. We do not say this because, as photographers, they are easily satisfied because they never offer a remonstrance or suggestion never ask to see the negative and, above all, do not importune for a second sitting. But, so far as we have seen, they sit quieter and steadier, and are more ready to fall in with the exigencies of photography, than their brethren in freedom. Pentonville Penitentiary is the largest establishment of the kind in England. At the time of our visit there were eleven hundred prisoners within the walls, and a much larger number can find accommodation if necessary. Every man sentenced to penal servitude comes to Pentonville, and the first nine months of the period of his conviction he passes there. It is during this period that he is photographed, arid the photographic records of Pentonville thus include every man in the kingdom sentenced to penal servitude. There is the same strict watch and vigilance at entrance and lodge which we described as existing at Millbank. There is the same military discipline among the warders the same grey monotonous appearance about the prisoners. Millbank had ivy and shrubs as its principal ornament; at Pentonville, it is the green grass plots upon which the prisoners rest their eyes for relief. So that these green spots may exist within the tall sombre walls, grass is grown in the exercise squares, and circular paths of asphalte, some two feet wide, appear like gigantic rings one within the other. The prisoners are at exercise at this moment, and we can see them from a window in the governor's room, walking round and round the green an outer circle and an inner circle of them, a warder on a raised 'platform looking on. The men are closer together than at Millbank, and step out with military precision, and for the most part with jaunty air and elastic step ; some even smirk and smile as they catch sight of us at the window; swinging their arms and wagging their heads, there are not half-a-dozen who appear dull or dejected. Perhaps it is the bright sunshine that pours down upon them in their roundabout tramp. One poor fellow walks to and fro in a corner by himself ; he has a wooden leg, and cannot keep up with the brisk march of his fellows. On our way to the studio we pass through the central hall of the prison, the lofty white walls rising sixty or eighty feet on either side; tiers upon tiers of cells, having access to light iron galleries, one over the other, run the length of the hall, which is spanned at intervals by iron bridges. Warders are posted everywhere, in vestibule, gallery, and bridge. We look into one of the cells ; it measures, perhaps, 12 feet by 8 feet, and contains a hand-weaving machine, at which the prisoner works. The cell is whitewashed, is very clean, and lightened by a window some nine feet from the floor. The governor is good enough to show us the tailoring shop, the shoemaker's shop, the laundry, the infirmary (where a dozen poor fellows are lying in bed, but as comfortable, apparently, as they would be in any hospital in London), and the kitchen, where huge boilers and stewpans are all attended by convicts. It is suet pudding day to-day, the only day in the week when there is no meat; but the governor says it is a favourite meal, for all that, and we are invited to taste the pudding a pound block like a tinned loaf which is made of whole flour, and served with the same weight of potatoes. Universal silence reigns everywhere in kitchen, workshop, and yard, for a prisoner is reported if he so much as opens his lips. During the whole of his sentence he is forbidden to speak to anyone but the warders, and these, as we enter, salute the governor, and immediately call out their brief report without waiting for any invitation to do so. The photographic studio is on the second floor of a solitary building in one of the yards, and has been built by someone possessing a knowledge of photography. The days are long since gone by when a wooden bench in front of the prison wall was the only convenience at the photographer's disposal. The glass room is, however, far from perfect, for not only is the aspect faulty, but the skirting-board rises too high to permit of a good side light. Indeed, when the prisoner sits down to be photographed, the line of light from the side is above his head. The consequence is, the top half of the studio is very light, where the sitter is not, and the lower half, where the sitter is, comparatively speaking, in shadow. But the photographer, who is at present entrusted with the work of taking portraits, is fortunately clever enough to combat with some success against the existing drawbacks, among which may also be cited apparatus that leaves something to be desired. Six convicts file into the studio attended by a warder. They remove their caps, and sit down in a row on a form ; in grey jackets and knickerbockers, with shaven faces and cropped hair, they look like big school boys. One of them takes up a narrow black board, some six inches wide, and proceeds to write very neatly in chalk the number and name of the first sitter, the board being then placed above the man's head when his picture is taken. He sits on a high-backed chair, and with no head-rest remains perfectly still for the seven seconds the exposure lasts. "Look at those bottles in the corner," says the photographer, briefly, so that the man may turn his head a bit; and then the lens is uncapped. A double carte plate is used ; but the men are so steady that rarely is a second negative taken ; another convict takes the seat, and the narrow black board above the head is reversed, the back bearing the second man's name and number. While the double plate is being developed, and another put into the slide, there is time to clean the black board, and put upon it two other names. There is no speaking; the convict simply pulls out of his jacket pocket a wooden tablet bearing name and number, and this is copied. "Look at those bottles," repeats the photographer, rather sharply, to his next sitter, for the man has not heeded the first request; "and put your chin down." The sitter smiles faintly, but does not obey. Ah! Here is a refractory prisoner at last; we are glad of it, for we shall be able able to see how matters are managed. But we are disappointed. "He is deaf," says the warder, who no sooner comes forward and explains to the sitter, than the latter is all obedience. According to the regulations, every prisoner's head should be depicted an-inch-and-a-quarter in length, but this is only taken as an approximate size. The photographer does better than measure the head every time; he takes every one of the same proportion; that is to say, the distance between lens and sitter is always the same, and is never varied, a measuring rod at once regulating the interval. In this way a much better idea of the size of a man's face and features is obtained than if large heads and small were all depicted of the same dimensions. It is necessary to produce rather hard negatives, otherwise it is almost impossible to secure contrast of any kind. The men being shaven and shorn, they present little contrast in themselves, while the dress they wear, being of a dull grey and with few folds, makes but a poor monotonous result if the negative errs on the side of softness. Under any circumstances, with the black board and its chalk writing above the head, the hands pressed close against the breast for a picture of the hands is deemed as requisite, as we have said before, as one of the face, from the fact that they are so much an indication of the man's calling and the ugly dress, a prison photograph can never be anything but a doleful result; but it is nevertheless satisfactory to find that the photographs, as photographs, have of late years been much improved. Besides securing records of prisoners, the practice of photographing them has one other advantage. In itself it acts as a deterrent of crime. Every criminal is aware that a picture has been taken of him, and he never knows how much this may be the means of bringing him to justice if he relapses once more into evil ways. He is apt to over-estimate rather than underestimate the power of photography, and it forms, at any rate, one reason the more why he should refrain from crime hereafter when he is again a free man. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 21. |  | Unidentified photographer 1880-1900 Prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs Album page National Science and Media Museum Photographs Collection, Ref Number: 1987-5218/1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 22. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1886, December The Convict Office at Scotland Yard Magazine page Google Books Published in in the anonymous article "The Metropolitan Police" in "Time: A Monthly Magazine" edited by E.M. Abdy-Williams, New Series, Volume IV, December 1886, p.656 The convict office in Scotland Yard forms part of the department. It is under a chief inspector. Classified albums of the photographs and marks of all discharged convicts on license and persons under police supervision in England are kept at this office. The antecedents of those living in the Metropolitan Police district are also entered in supervision registers, as well as those particulars concerning their conduct during the currency of their license or supervision as are obtainable in the periodical visits which they make. Individuals under remand or awaiting trial in the Metropolitan and City Police districts are visited at prisons by selected warders from metropolitan gaols and police from each division for the identification of any person who has previously been convicted. Persons recognised as of this class have their previous convictions proved against them. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 23. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1884, 29 March The Police Gazette Magazine page Google Books Published in the article "A Curiosity in Journalism" in "Chambers Journal", No.13, Vol.1, March 29, 1884, p.200-201. The article discusses "The Police Gazette" in Great Britain. In addition to being much better printed, the new Gazette already shows decided improvement both in the selection and arrangement of its contents. For convenient reference, particulars are not only grouped according to the usual categories of crime, but are now classified under special headings for the various districts to which cases belong. Illustrations have also been introduced as a new feature. These take the form of woodcuts from photographs of persons ' wanted' on various charges, or of valuable articles stolen. The first number of the Gazette contains the likeness of several criminals of whom the authorities are in pursuit. In one instance, so as to aid identification, the subject is shown not only with beard and moustache, but also as he would appear when clean shaved. Some of these faces, it is true, seem decent and commonplace enough, such as one sees almost every hour of the day in the public streets; but others, ' an index of all villainy,' are unmistakably those of dangerous characters whom none of us would like to meet alone in a quiet road on a dark night. But it is in the police album1 that we can best study the variety of expression by which the human countenance can betray every shade of criminal depravity. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 24. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1882, July The Convict Office at Scotland Yard Magazine page Google Books Published in the article "The Metropolitan Police" by M. Laing Meason in "Macmillan's Magazine", Volume 46, July 1882, p.200. Amongst other details worthy of praise connected with our police force, that of what is called the convict office in Scotland Yard, is particularly so. The executives of this office, consist of eight officers under a chief inspector, and it forms part of the Department of the Director of Criminal Investigations. Here are kept criminally classified albums of photographs and masks of all convicts discharged on license, and of all persons who are under police supervision. Their antecedents are further recorded in the register together with such particulars as to their conduct while on license as can be gathered in the periodical visits which are ordered. Nothing can be more orderly, more methodical, or more exact, than the manner in which all the documents of this office are kept; and the civility of those in charge leaves nothing to be desired. It has not been fairly at work for more than two years; but it has already been of the greatest assistance to the police. Moreover, those who have been the victims of any criminal offence, have now the opportunity of identifying the delinquent. Amongst the criminal classes, this office is looked upon as a great obstacle in their professional career.1 1 Branch offices of this kind are shortly to be established in all the large towns throughout the kingdom. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 25. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1889 Photography, drawings and the policeà Book page Google Books Published in "Police!" by Charles Tempest Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, New York: Scribner and Welford, 1889), , p.300-301. Besides these circulars, there is issued twice a week in London, under the editorship of Dr. Anderson, the Police Gazette, originally started in 1828, which owes its improved form to the enterprise of Mr. Howard Vincent, when Director of Criminal Investigation. It is supplied gratis to the police forces of the kingdom. Printed on good paper, the number before us consists of twelve pages. à. The body of the newspaper is filled with classified particulars of apprehensions sought in the Metropolitan Police District, counties, and cities and boroughs; also, in the same order, particulars of persons in custody; and again, of property stolen. Very great prominence is given to certain descriptions of the supposed Whitechapel murderer, and of certain facts in connection with the ghastly discoveries in the new police buildings. In eight cases, woodcuts, boldly executed, purport to give likenesses of the runaways. We say " purport," because these woodcuts are sometimes reprinted to illustrate handbills, and it is notorious that in the case of Currell, who evaded arrest for about a fortnight after he had murdered his sweetheart in Hoxton, the likeness was a bad one. In that case, however, the artist had simply a "tin-type" photo, of very small size, to guide him. Sometimes the police had not even this slender hint, and, as in the instance of Lefroy, they were glad to avail themselves of the sketch of the man, drawn from memory by a gentleman who had frequently conversed with him. The authorities have never ventured so far as to publish a hypothetical sketch portrait, as did the Daily Telegraph, from descriptions given of the Whitechapel murderer. In fact, the Scotland Yard officials took care to notify that these drawings were not authorized by them. Whenever the photograph of a suspect is a good one to commence with, it is very fairly reproduced, although in London any assistance from photography or "process" engraving is declined. In this respect provincial forces are ahead of the Metropolitan Police. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 26. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1889 Prisoners being photographed for "the Rogues' Gallery" Book illustration Google Books Published in "Police!" by Charles Tempest Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, New York: Scribner and Welford, 1889), , p.359. Somewhere at the top of the Home Office, in long dark and dusty corridors, there are kept the habitual criminals' registers; but they are seldom visited by the police, who find the information they desire readier to hand in the less voluminous records of the Convict Office. These records are contained in albums, and they comprise a collection of upwards of 38,000 photographs of criminals, taken at the time of their discharge. They date back to 1862, some eighteen years earlier than the formation of the department, but it is only since then that they have been so accessible. Each album, properly classified, contains 6,000, and, for the purposes of speedy reference, duplicates are pasted in smaller volumes of 500 portraits each, and these give also the written particulars of each case, and the bodily peculiarities and " marks" as ascertained by the processes already described. Photographs are printed for circulation amongst all police forces of the United Kingdom. A student of character may direct profitable study to the photographs. They represent the criminals in their ordinary dress, with the face in half profile, so that the shape of the nose may appear. The police also pay particular attention to the person's hands, as betraying character and individuality. Consequently, the convicts are required to hold their hands up, and it is amusing to observe how, in some cases, men have been at the pains to disregard this injunction by hiding as much of their fists as possible in their cuffs, or by other expedients. Generally this is done to conceal a malformation, or the fact that a finger is missing. Before the days of instantaneous photography it was frequently difficult to obtain a good likeness, for the unwilling criminal would, at the critical moment, violently distort his features in the hope of defying future recognition. He would, occasionally, struggle fiercely with his gaolers, who, by the exercise of sheer muscular strength, would overpower him. The Rogues' Gallery, which provides us with our illustration, is a terror to the evil doer. At Scotland Yard, the collection of photographs is becoming so large that perhaps the French plan of classifying the heads into types will have to be adopted, for the purpose of facilitating ready reference. One may often see detectives poring over the "black books " with a view to the identification of suspected persons, or re-convicted criminals. A person twice convicted of crime is liable to be placed under supervision for seven years, in addition to his sentence. [A high quality scan of this book plate is requested.] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 27. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1873, 1 November Criminal Photography Magazine page Google Books Published in "Criminal Photography" in "All the Year Round" by Charles Dickens, New Series, Volume 11, p.9-12. CRIMINAL PHOTOGRAPHY. We have not yet come to an end of tho additions made to the useful applications of photography. Nay, we seem to be still only on the threshold. Portraits somewhat unmeaningly called cartes de visite small enough to be inserted in an albnm, continuo to be the main production of the art; but the variety in other directions is becoming amazingly large. Landscape, sea, and sky have been brought within the range of the camera, with surprising results; geological stratification and mineral structure are copied with a fidelity never before possible; leaves, buds, tendrils, bark, and roots have been made to tell their secrets to the collodionisod plate; wings, fur, plumage, skin, hair, are in like manner revealed as to their surface structure. Medical men take photographs of diseased organs and tissues, as among the best modes of comparing one disease with another. Archaeologists photograph ancient marbles and inscriptions, ancient bronzes and coins. Ethnologists fix by a similar agency tho characteristic portraiture of nations and tribes. Astronomers, by the aid of tho camera, have largely increased the knowledge which the telescope and the spectroscope had given them of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies; and are preparing to use the same valuable auxiliary in watching the transit of Venns next year. Civil engineers take photographs of broken bridges and embankments, and mechanical engineers of broken boilers and locomotives, that they may have before them a permanent record of each disaster, so far as concerns the actual appearance of the fragments. And now justice steps in to claim her share in tho service which photography renders to mankind. She asserts that when a rogue has become well-nigh incorrigible, it is right that the officers of the law should have an eye upon him, and a clue whereby they may know him again when he again transgresses. During a few years past, a custom has occasionally been adopted of taking photographs of criminals in prison not, of course, to gratify the criminals themselves, but to obtain permanent means of knowing them again. This was generally decided on by individual magistrates, or jail governors, who foresaw the value of the system; and evidence has been afforded that they were not wrong in anticipating useful results. In one instance, two men stole some sheep in the north of England, drove them south, and added to the number as they went on. They sold them in London, and got off with the proceeds; but the detectives ferreted them out, and lodged them in Shrewsbury Jail. As a means of obtaining evidence, the police required that the thieves should be identified in the districts through which they had passed. A photographer took their likenesses; copies of these were sent to the several districts; and the clue thus obtained led to the conviction of the offenders. In another instance, where a murder had been committed at Durham, a photograph of a suspected man was sent by the police to the house of one John Owen, a tailor, in a distant part of England. It was immediately recognised by Owen's daughters, one of whom exclaimed in tears, " Oh, it's our Jack; there is no doubt about it now;" and Owen himself also acknowledged that the photograph was a portrait of his son, against whom suspicion had already been aroused, and who proved to be the murderer. When it was proposed, about three years ago, to establish this as a regular system, objections were raised to it by some portion of the press. It was urged that there are generally seven or eight thousand convicts in the various convict prisons, besides prisoners in other jails; that to take and keep photographs of them all would produce a criminal album of most portentous bulk; that it would be unfair to photograph a man against his will, and thus render him an object of suspicion for the rest of his life; and that an ingenious rogue might so effectually distort his features, as to render identification difficult, if not impossible. And it was added: "Of what use will the photographs be? Criminal faces are almost all of one type. There is but little individuality about them; and the various photographic portraits, which will compose the new criminal gallery, will have so unusually strong a family likeness as to be of little or no practical value in establishing the identity of a prisoner. These objections were without difficulty removed. As to the number of photographs, this might be lessened to any degree if the results were not found adequate to the expense. As to the unfairness of photographing a man without his own consent, this objection falls to the ground; the photographs are for the police authorities, not for the public; and they are portraits of wrong-doers, concerning whose future proceedings society has a right to be placed on its guard. And as to the family likeness among rogues, every day's experience disproves this; some of the most benevolent-looking hypocrites are to be found among our criminals. There is more cogency in the objection that a criminal might so twist about his face as to ronder a photograph wanting in real identity. The authorities have experienced this, and have adopted means for frustrating the cunning. On one occasion, at Shrewsbury, where a convict knew that he was to be photographed, he made such horrible contortions as to spoil the plate, and then a second. At a third attempt, the photographer only pretended to be at work; he had either no lens in his camera, or no collodioniscd plate behind the lens. After a few moments, he shut down the apparatus with an expression of annoyance, and went into the dark chamber as if to develop a negative. The convict, thrown off his guard, resumed his ordinary shape of features; and at that moment a second photographer, quietly placed behind a screen, did the work effectually through a small opening. In other instances, by previous concert with the prison warders, the photographs have been taken in the labour - yard, at the instant when a prisoner was standing before a small opening in the wall. In most cases, however, a threat of shortening the rations, or increasing the labour, has been effectual in inducing the rogues to leave their features in their natural form. Three years ago, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in the exercise of power intrusted to bim by parliament, issued an order to the magistrates to furnish the Commissioners of Police with photographs of all offenders in county prisons, whose offences brought them within the statutory meaning of the Habitual Criminals' Act; thereby giving systematic effect to a plan which had before been only partially adopted. The Chief Commissioner of Police, reporting on the subject about a year afterwards, stated that the order had not been so well carried out as had been expected, but that the full benefit of the system might eventually be looked for. " It is confidently expected that a more general use of photography, the exercise of greater care in observing and noting any peculiarities in the personal appearance of prisoners respecting whose antecedents information is sought, and the cordial cooperation of the police and prison authorities of the kingdom with the Central Register Office, will lead to the frequent identification of old offenders. Many prisoners have been identified by means of their photographs, and former convictions proved. Occasional use has been made of photography in special cases with good results; and the system recently established of visiting prisons has given the detective officers a good knowledge of thieves." Two years ago a new Act was passed to give more definite effect to the Home Secretary's order. Registers of convictions are to be kept in a prescribed form at central offices in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. The governor, or chief officer of every jail, is to make returns of the persons convicted of crime who come into his custody. Regulations are to be made for photographing all prisoners convicted of crime, confined in any prisons; and refusal to obey any regulation made in this matter is to be deemed an offence against prison discipline. The expenses of keeping the register are to be paid by the Treasury; but the outlay for photographing the convicts is to be deemed a part of the regular expenses of each prison or jail. An interesting parliamentary paper has recently been issued, giving an account of the results of this system, during the short time that it has been in force in a regular way. Down to the end of last year, more than thirty thousand photographs of criminals had been received by the Commissioners of Metropolitan Police, and deposited in the Habitual Criminals' Office, from the governors of county and borough jails and convict prisons. This was in little more than twelve months. Going back another year, to the date when the Home Secretary's order was issued, the total number amounted to forty - three thousand, forwarded from a hundred and two prisons in England, and thirteen in Wales (the experiences of Scotland and Ireland are not reported in this document). As we know pretty well the cost of photographic album portraits done in the usual way, we may have a pardonable curiosity to learn the cost of those relating to criminals. This information the parliamentary paper gives us; for it appears that the forty-three thousand prison photographs have cost three thousand pounds about one shilling and fourpence each. The rogues are certainly not worthy of this sixteenpence apiece; but then it is bestowed, not for their benefit, but as a safeguard in the hands of justice. The House of Commons, in ordering the returns to which the paper relates, requested to be informed in how many cases the photographs had led to the identification and conviction of offenders. Many of the governors of county and borough prisons were unable to furnish information on this point. Some said "not known," some "no record kept," some "not recorded," some "cannot ascertain," many of them plainly said "none," while the rest furnished instances of successful application. Tho Bedford County Prison reported : " Of the hundred and five county prisoners, twenty have been detected through the aid of photography." Cornwall said: "In many cases information received from the Habitual Criminals' Register by photographs sent on jail forms for recognition has led to the identification of old offenders." Dorset could tell of "six cases known;" while Herefordshire reported that "three who have been in custody here were recognised by the police elsewhere through their photographs." The authorities at the Holloway City Prison had no means of knowing accurately the number of cases in which photographs had led to the identification and detection of criminals; but, "at any rate, they can say that about thirty of the number have since come under their observation, and have been re-dealt with for fresh offences, in most instances receiving a sentence of penal servitude." At Leicester Borough Prison three male prisoners had been detected, before trial, by means of portraits sent round to different counties, of having been previously convicted of felony. At Newgate many prisoners had been identified by means of photographs received from the government convict prisons. Some of the prisons sent memoranda of the cost that had been incurred in bringing the photographing arrangements into working order. Monmouthshire told of twenty-five pounds spent upon a studio; while at the Liverpool Borough Prison an expense of ninety-five pounds had been incurred for a photographing room, and sixty pounds per annum for the services of a photographer. Here and there the governor of the prison is a tolerably efficient amateur in this art, and has managed the matter without any cost to the county or borough. So far as we can judge from the returns, only one copy of each photograph is usually taken, but in some instances there are evidently more. Thus, of two hundred and twenty - eight photographs sent to the Habitual Criminals' Office from Leicester, twenty-two were duplicate copies. Of five hundred and eighty-two taken at the City Prison, Holloway, two hundred and twentyfour were furnished to the Registry, three hundred and twenty-eight to the City police, and thirty to the magistrate. In all probability there were several triplicates in this instance. The greatest number sent by any one prison to the Criminal Registry were from Newgate, nearly four thousand eight hundred; next to this was Coldbath Fields Prison, about two thousand eight hundred; Liverpool Borough Prison came next, with two thousand eight hundred; and Westminster County Prison, with two thousand three hundred. From these high numbers we come down to Lincoln County Prison, which sent just one photograph, and only one, for which an outlay of three shillings and sixpence is recorded. It might be supposed that Newgate, with its large brigade of photographs transmitted to Scotland Yard, would be able to point to a goodly number of instances in which these have led to the detection of criminals; but there is one reason why the authorities at Newgate have no means of testing this matter : "The prisoners convicted here are, after trial, removed to various prisons to undergo their respective sentences;" and Newgate sees nothing more of them unless a subsequent conviction, for other crimes, happens to take place within the district of which this prison is the head-quarters. It is not alone in this country that photography has been brought into requisition as an aid to the administration of justice, nor, indeed, was it with us that the system first began. Every principal police station in the United States of America has for some years past had its " Rogues' Gallery" a collection of portraits of offenders whose future proceedings require watching, and whose personal identity might clear up some otherwise insoluble puzzlement. It may perchance be only a joke, but the American thieves are said, in self-defence, to have established a " Detectives' Gallery," portraits of such police officers as it might be worth while to avoid. Cunning rogues are more likely, we imagine, to photograph such lineaments on their brains or memories than on collodionised plates of glass. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 28. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1888, 16 June Movements of Mr William Sikes Magazine page Google Books Published in "Punch", Vol.XCIV, June 16, 1888, p.286. MOVEMENTS OF MR. WILLIAM SIKES. From the Cracksman's Circular. Mr. William Sikes arrived in London this morning by the 10 A.m. train from Portland, having murdered a warder or two and left early. There were a number of friends to meet him. After making them a short speech, he adjourned with a select few to the Burglar's Arms Hotel, where a recherche dejeuner was served. He left in a private Hansom for the residence of a friend en route for Paris. During his short stay Mr. William Sikes visited the houses of several wealthy merchants in the suburbs, and removed a considerable amount of superfluous silver, gold, and valuable jewellery. The lot will be sold in a few days' time at Melter Moss's Lost Property Auction, of which due notice will be given in this journal and in the Police Gazette. At the request of his admirers, Mr. William sat for his photograph. One specimen copy he subsequently sent by Special Messenger, as a present, to Sir Charles Warben, and another he left personally on the Chief of the Police Intelligence Department, Whitehall. Mr. W. Sikes conversed pleasantly for several minutes with some of the chief constables on duty, and bidding them farewell, drove back to the house of the friend with whom he was staying. In the evening of next day the first burglary of the season (in this neighbourhood) took place at the house of Mr. Snobbington, whose gold plate was left out on the side-board on the occasion of the reception given by Mrs. Snobbington to the Half-Crown Prince of Saxe-hapense. Mr. William Sikes, who is a great collector of old jewellery and gold and silver plate, was naturally attracted by the display, and was not contented until he had become the happy possessor of some of the most splendid pieces in the set. Friday. A. man said to be uncommonly like Mr. William Sikes has been arrested, and is now in the custody of the police. The proceedings are necessarily secret. Saturday. Another man more like Mr. William Sikes than the other has been arrested. The other one has been cautioned and discharged. He promised not to look so like W. Sikes again, and thanked the police for the care they had taken of him. Sunday. The man arrested yesterday has been discharged. On being confronted with the photograph it was ascertained that he wasn't like Mr. Sikes at alL He was immediately dismissed with a caution. A wire from Paris brings the intelligence that Mr. W. Sikes was present at the Grand Prix, when several distinguished French gentlemen, residing in the neighbourhood, lost considerable sums of money. Unfortunately the news arrived too late for any member of the Intelligence Department to avail himself of it. Due notice will be given of Mr. Sikes's return to town. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 29. |  | Unidentified Russian police photographer(s) 1890 (ca) Twenty Wanted Anarchist Women [Moscow] Albumen prints, each hand cut, retouched and annotated in Russian on 2-sided mount 13.7 x 23.9 cm CEROS - Jean-Mathieu Martini / Serge Plantureux Binoche et Giquello, épreuves choisies, 18 november 2010, lot no: 100 Some are sisters: 103 Kouzmina Mar[ia] 104 Boltachea Vassa 105 Gousseva Anna 106 Terenteva Tatiana 107 Dounaeva Maria 108 Alabina Alexandra 109 Babina Elena 110 Ossipova Vassilissa 111Mourina Ekaterina 112 Melnikova Ekaterina 113 Chliapnikova Nadezhda 114 Mastrukova Pelageia 115 Kouptzeva Anna 116 Grigorieva Maria 117Medova Endkovia 118 Blokhina Elizaveta 119 Goloviznova Elena 120 Paranenko Evdokia 121 Pouchkareva Olga 122 Pouchkareva Mitr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 30. |  | Unidentified Russian police photographer(s) 1890 (ca) Twenty Wanted Anarchist Women [Moscow] (detail) Albumen prints, each hand cut, retouched and annotated in Russian on 2-sided mount 13.7 x 23.9 cm CEROS - Jean-Mathieu Martini / Serge Plantureux Binoche et Giquello, épreuves choisies, 18 november 2010, lot no: 100 Only nine of the following are shown in this detail. Some are sisters: 103 Kouzmina Mar[ia] 104 Boltachea Vassa 105 Gousseva Anna 106 Terenteva Tatiana 107 Dounaeva Maria 108 Alabina Alexandra 109 Babina Elena 110 Ossipova Vassilissa 111Mourina Ekaterina 112 Melnikova Ekaterina 113 Chliapnikova Nadezhda 114 Mastrukova Pelageia 115 Kouptzeva Anna 116 Grigorieva Maria 117Medova Endkovia 118 Blokhina Elizaveta 119 Goloviznova Elena 120 Paranenko Evdokia 121 Pouchkareva Olga 122 Pouchkareva Mitr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 31. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1853, 24 February Science a Preservative from Crime Magazine page Google Books Published in "True Briton: A Weekly Magazine of Amusement and Instruction", Volume 1, New Series, No.34, February 24, 1853, p.552. Science a Preservative from Crime Science seems to be setting itself dead against crime and criminals. Railways gave a death-blow to the romantic railing of the highway robber. How is a ruffian to cry "stop!" to an express train "your money or your life'' to a man shooting past him in the wake of a chariot of fire? Your electric telegraph, again, has rendered it next to impossible for the Jack Sheppards and Dick Turpins of the time to escape pursuit, even after they may have secured their booty. What chance has "Black Bess," when pursuit follows her on the wings of the lightning? In vain the thief, the forger, or the shedder of blood, leaps into the fleetest train, while the " hue and cry" goes after him, like Milton's angel, on a ray of light, to meet him face to face at every point of his flight and run him down at last into the prison cell. The latest application of the powers which science lends to society for its better protection Is, the use of the daguerreotype. Many are the uses of a record of crime, and there are obvious advantages in a Judge knowing whether the culprit before him is an old or a new offender against the laws. But every one familiar with courts of justice knows how often it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain this essential circumstance. Of course, every prisoner according to his own story is in court for "the first time." He has a new name, a different dress, perhaps an unaccustomed brogue or accent. Crime Is infinitely Protean. The sharpest officers of police, the most experienced turnkeys, are sometimes at fault: so that, while first offenders are now and then sentenced as hardened criminals, fellows who have run through the whole gamut of crime escape on the strength of their previous character! The Minister of Justice in Switzerland, with a view to remedying this difficulty and injustice, has ordered the several heads of police and prison departments in that country to take sun portraits of mendicants and vagabonds. This is the beginning of a new system certainly. Formerly it was the custom to brand criminals with hot irons and this is still the custom in the East so that all men might know them. But our age is wiser and more humane. Branding has quite gone out of fashion, at least in Western Europe, and now science is about to restore to society that safeguard against lawless spirits which some years ago society herself voluntarily threw away in the interest of the humanities. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 32. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1882 555. During the year but little has been done in photographing criminals - Lower Provinces of the Bengal Residency Book page Google Books Published in "Report of the state of Police in the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency For the year 1881" by J. Monro (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1882), p.112, paragraph 555. 555. During the year but little has been done in photographing criminals. I had reserved the major part of my grant for the special purpose of having all Burwars in their villages photographed. I offered to share the expense of having this done with the North-Western police; but when I discovered that the experiment was to be undertaken solely at my expense, no portion of the cost being defrayed by the North-Western police, I withdrew from the arrangement. I am now in correspondence with New York photographers regarding an inexpensive method of taking likenesses, which I hope to put in force during the present year. The stock of photographs ending 31st December 1881 is as follows:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 33. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1884 Photography in Prisons Magazine page Google Books Published in "Photography in Prisons" by S.W. Wetmore in "Photography", Volume 1, No.2, May, 1884, p.10. Photography In Prisons. BY S. W. WETMORE. Recording Clerk and Photographer, Illinois State Penitentiary Joliet, Ills. For some years past, the subject of photography as a means of ferreting out crime, aud of producing an unfailing record for the aid of officers of the law, in the identification of habitual or professional criminals, has attracted considerable attention from police and prison authorities. But or some cause they have failed to generally.adopt it as an aid. Now that the dry plate process of taking pictures has been so simplified, the police department or prison that does not adopt photography as a means of adding valuable information to its system of records, must soon consider itself as far behind the times. Every well equipped police station and place of imprisonment could at small expense have its own photographer. During a period of ten years past, I have recorded upon the register of the Joliet penitentiary, the descriptions of over eight thousand criminals or convicts that have been received at that institution during that time. The description of a prisoner as now taken at Joliet is a very complete affair, giving not only his general appearance, color of hair, eyes and complexion, but goes into the smallest details, showing the location and number of moles, scars, India ink marks or designs, every peculiarity of feature and build, shape of nose, mouth and head, all being carefully written out by the officer that receives the new convict. The officer who has once known the criminal as a convict, can be pretty sure of being able to identify him years afterward, provided he can get a copy of the prison descriptive list to refer to. But complete as is the system of the prison records and descriptions, there has always seemed to me to be something lacking to make it absolutely correct and a sure means for the future identification of the criminal, and that something was a photograph. Heretofore it has been almost an impossibility to have it done by a regular photographer; the expense and trouble would be too great. When my attention was first called to dry plate photography it struck me at once as being the very thing wanted. A grand thing for penitentiaries and penal institutions, the great homes of society's malefactors. It took me several years to convince the authorities of Joliet prison that a photographer's outfit was a real necessity to the institution. They thought it would be a fine thing to have a picture of each convict that entered the prison, but imagined it would be an impossible thing to do, the convicts would object, and it would cause great trouble and expense. One old prison officer said to me, "What! take the pictures of convicts? It cannot, be done. You would have a fine time taking the mugs of the 'old timers,' wouldn't ye?" Another officer who had spent all his life in handling criminals, said : " When I was on the Chicago police force I was often detailed to accompany the squad thai went to the photographer's to have the pictures of some hard cases taken for the rogues' gallery, and I've seen them try for a whole hour to get the picture of one man, he would run out his tongue, squint his eyes, twist his mouth and blow out his cheeks, making all kinds of contortions, and even when we put the "come-alongs" on him and twisted them up until he yelled with pain, he would'nt give in. The only way you can successfully photograph the hard ones is to catch them when they are asleep; although I once saw two central office detectives administer chloroform to Paddy Kent, a St. Louis crook, and they got his picture in that way, but it looked like the picture of a corpse. I remember one day, when a notorious Cleveland thief named Joe Dubuque was taken over to the artist to have his picture taken to adorn the central office Rogue's gallery. Joe went along as meek as a lamb, never offered a word of objection, but the moment the artist uncapped the lens, Joe sprang from his seat and kicked a hole clear through the side of the camera, and before we could get hold of him again, he had succeeded in putting an ele gant head on the photographer." Such stories and experiences as related above, made me doubt the practicability of prison photography, yet I contended that there was a great difference between an unconvicted criminal and one wearing the stripes behind the bars. The whole demeanor and bearing of a man changed from the moment that he heard the great iron door clang to behind him as he entered the prison to serve his sentence; previous to his coming, he was bold and defiant, but when his person was covered with the zebra suit, his nerve left him; then he was but a mere machine ready to obey and do the bidding of those in authority the hardest of criminals becoming timid and nervous on their first entrance into prison, not knowing what fate might be in store for them in the dreary life behind the prison walls. Outside, the professional crook would not permit any artist to copy his features. The villain would stand six months in the bridewell, or live on county jail diet for weeks, or even accept a five years' term in the penitentiary, but the hardest steps in his whole criminal career would be to sit still and have his "phiz" taken, knowing that it would be placed in every prominent Rogues' gallery in the country. I believed I could make a success of prison photography, and agitated the subject until the authorities finally gave me permission to order an outfit and try the experiment. I knew nothing about the art or what sort of an apparatus was necessary for our purpose. I sent to New York for Anthony's catalogue and from it selected a cheap 5x8 amateur outfit, something entirely unsuited for the purpose,-but I found that out soon enough. I received the outfit in December last and at once commenced to study up dry plates, chemicals, developers and processes. I exposed plates on every person about the warden's house and in the course of a few weeks considered myself far enough advanced in the art to attempt taking pictures of the convicts. The warden suggested January 1, 1884, as a good time to commence, and if I made a success of it that we would take a picture of every new arrival after that date. On January 3, the regular monthly delegation of convicted felons came down from Chicago. The gang consisted of twenty-three men, among whom were some of the hardest cases that ever entered the prison, several fourth and fifth termers among them, criminals that have known the interiors of half the jails and prisons in the country. After the new recruits had been fully initiated into the stripes, I had my outfit conveyed to a small building standing in the center of the prison yard, where I could utilize a side light and screen. The twenty-three men were marched into the room and seated. I saw a queer look flash into the faces of the men, the moment they saw my camera and began to realize why they were brought there. A dozen curious guards were on hand to witness the expected circus, which they had predicted would occur when I attempted to take the pictures. I had provided a couple of citizens' coats to be put on by the convicts when their pictures were to be taken, and when the first man was called up, and ordered to remove his striped jacket and put on the citizen's coat, I imagined that the other convicts, who were intently watching proceedings, felt relieved when they found out that their pictures was to be taken in citizens' dress and not the striped prison garb. John W. Pallson was my first sitter, a notorious burglar, this being his sixth term at Joliet prison. The coat was buttoned well up to his chin to hide the striped vest and shirt beneath, and he was seated before the camera. I was decidedly nervous myself, not knowing what' might be the result and came very near knocking the instrument over while trying to get a focus on Pallson's ugly mug. From beneath the black cloth I could see that he was in no good humor, his face wearing an awful scowl, and seemed as if he was contemplating the idea of kicking my instrument into the middle of next week. I finally got the slide drawn, and directed the convict to keep his eyes on a bit of paper I had placed on the wall, then I uncapped the lens, counted ten seconds, and replaced the cap. The deed was done, the convict had not even winked during the exposure. All my nerve came back. I called up the next victim, a diminutive red-haired customer with a hard record, but he took his dose of dry plate like a little man, and never kicked. In forty minutes I had exposed plates on the whole gang and saw them march away to the solitary prison, to meditate over their fates. The guards who had said it would be an impossibility to successfully photograph the convicts, had also silently stolen away without a word to say, while I was left there monarch of the ranch with twenty-three undeveloped plates in my holders. My convict assistant packed up the outfit and we made double quick time to the warden's house where my dark room is located. My first batch of portraits was pretty fair, and considered good for a beginner. When the prints were ready I mounted them in the "Prison Album," which is a large book, made with sheets of card-board for leaves, and substantially bound; each page is ruled off into twenty squares, each square to contain a print and below it the prison registered number of the convict. No names appear in the book. An average of 700 convicts are received at Joliet prison annually and when this album is completed it will contain the pictures of over two thousand criminals. The negatives are filed away in preservers and kept for future use. Should a convict escape, hundreds of his pictures would be sent in all directions for his recapture, and on the back of each card would ba printed the description of the man with an offer of fifty dollars reward for his capture. The "Prison Album" of the Joliet penitentiary is destined to become one of the greatest Rogues galleries in the world. It already contains the pictures of nearly 300 men who have entered the prison this year. S. W. Wetmore. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 34. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1884 Photography in Prisons Magazine page Google Books Published in "Photography", Volume 1, No.4, June 15, 1884, p.76. Photography In Prisons. An article on the title hereof by S. W. Wetmore, of the Joliet penitentiary, published in Photography of May 15th, 1884, was submitted to the attention of the writer. Being a thing of the distant past in the Nebraska penitentiary at Nobesville, the experiment had at Joliet the narrative referred to above, we should say, caused some forcible smiles to expand upon the countenance of the writer of this paper. Some of the objections of the "old prison officers" and "of officers that had spent their life-time in handling criminals," to the end that photographs of convicts could not be taken, sound so new and fresh as to almost rival the grade of stories and yarns found in papers of the importance of the Youth's Companion etc., etc. The Joliet penitentiary certainly made a step forward the day (January 1st, 1884) it commenced taking photographs of its convicts; and we certainly recognize Mr. Ws right to be prond of having been the promoter of that step. But we submit that the mere report of the fact would have satisfied Mr. Ws readers a good deal more than coupling with it matter and language decidedly out of place and without claiming the novelty of the innovation as almost exclusively a Joliet improvement. The question whether either criminal or penal officers have the right to take the photographs of prisoners is, at any rate and to say the least, doubtful. No one will raise any objection when photographs are taken with the view of protecting society in the ferreting out of criminals, nor will any objection be put forth if the penal officers take the photographs of their convicts so as to enable them to recapture fugitives. But from this to parading in every detective or police office in the country a "Rogues' Gallery," we submit that there is a great difference. Who has not, while visiting detective or police headquarters, heard the wonderful stories from the officer showing them the "Rogues' Gallery?" How many are those, in leaving the headquarters, who have not almost been convinced that all the photographs framed in patent racks, and all the stories connected therewith, are the victorious trophies and valuable mementoes of the officer so gentlemanly volunteering information and courtesies? The writer has seen in one of these offices an 8x12 photo, representing what at first sight would appear like the inside of a tool manufactory, judging from the innumerable sorts and manner of tools hung up on the background or heaped up on the floor. Yet, in scrutinizing, he found a caligraphic inscription on the back of the photo. We will refrain from copying it here. Let it suffice to say that, under the signature of two well known criminal officers, the broad claim was asserted that all these tools (a car-load of them certainly) had been used in an attempt to rob the bank at R____ , in Indiana. Photographing criminals is a good innovation, providing common sense and decency are used in connection. Criminals themselves will not object to being photographed, when they know that no undue use of their likeness is made. There are certainly criminals, even if they be few, whom, after paying what is commonly called "their debt to society," mean to lead, and do lead, as honest a life as the average citizen. Why then, in common sense's name throw anything in their road? Why hang them in public places? Why take delight in having visitors to police or criminal headquarters take particular notice of those very men, perhaps, when piloted through the "Rogues' Gallery?" At the Nebraska State penitentiary, these considerations preside in the photographing of convicts, and it were to be hoped that all penal institutions use the same discretion. At Nobesville the visitor will see no "Rogues' Gallery," no "Prison Album," and neither are boasted of. When the request is made by some visitor that the style of photographs be shown, the photos of dead convicts generally are exhibited. The visitor goes away satisfied, and the officer tendering the courtesy has the inner satisfaction to know he has thrown nothing in any one's way. When photos are called for by criminal officers, no matter whence the call comes, for the purpose of aiding the ends of justice, the call is always courteously responded to, and every facility tendered in all cases. Mr. C. J. Nobes, the warden of the Nebraska penitentiary (a Joliet boy, by the way), introduced the innovation upon his appointment as warden in September, 1880, and since, the photographs of all the convicts are matter of prison record. The practice at] Nobesville differs from the practice at Joliet, and we give the following as a result of four years' experience, without claiming perfection: Two photos of each prisoner are taken. The first as he appears on his arrival, showing three fourths of the body. It is established that the style of dressing and the cut of beard and hair, hat wear etc., are as good a clue as any for identification. The second photograph is taken when the prisoner is clean shaved. On the top of the head, and attached to the iron head-rest, is a card after this style [IMAGE HERE] By that means the photo identifies itself on its face, and furnishes all the information wanted in subsequent years. The number of each convict is simply slid in the card. The negatives are carefully preserved, and no mistake can be made when one particular number is wanted. No writing appears on the photos and they are kept under lock, divided by 50. Mr. W concludes his article in these words: "The 'Prison Album' of the Joliet penitentiary is destined to become one of the greatest rogues' galleries in the world. It already contains the pictures of nearly three hundred men who have entered the prison this year." Let him permit us a suggestion right here; he will attain the summit of his ambition two years earlier anyhow: The number of pictures is what he has in perspective. Let him take those of the 1,600 convicts now in Joliet. It will not be long then until the "Prison Album," etc., etc. J.G. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 35. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1887, 10 February (letter) Letter from Michael P. Evans to Frederick Ebersold, Chicago Book page, Letter Google Books Published in "History of The Chicago Police from the Settlement to the Community of the Present Time" by John J. Flinn, assisted by John E. Wilkie (Chicago: under the Auspices of the Police Book Fund, 1887), p.455. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 36. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1860 Medical Jurisprudence - Daguerreotypes and Portraits Book page Google Books Published in "A Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence" by Francis Wharton & Moreton Stillé (Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1860), p.939, paragraph 1221 and footnotes. º1221. d. Daguerreotypes and portraits. This method is now coming in vogue in the police departments of our great cities. Its practical value in the determination of questions of identity has not yet been the subject of legal consideration. (f) Pictures, however, have not been without their use for detective purposes. A capital conviction is reported by Mr. Wills to have been secured by the prisoner having given his portrait to a youth, which enabled the police, after watching a month in London, to recognize the culprit.(g) Footnotes f For the following note I am indebted to the officers having charge of this special department (1860) in the Mayor's office in Philadelphia. "During the mayoralty of the Hon. John M. Scott, in 1842-43, rough pen and pencil sketches were made of the countenances of the prisoners the remembrance of whom it was thought desirable to perpetuate. Of these there now remain on file, &c, sketches of twelve individuals; this may be considered as the first approach towards the formation of a Rogues' Gallery; these have been found useful in a number of instances. During the administration of Mayor Gilpin from 75 to 80 daguerreotypes and armbrotypes of noted men in police annals were made the nucleus of a gallery, though kept in a trunk under lock and key most of the time. They were seldom exhibited to others than officers of the detective department of police. With the present administration the gallery of photographs commenced, and has been carried forward to its present condition, numbering now (April 24, I860) 266 portraits. It has been thought desirable, in furtherance of police ends, to add, as far as possible, the portraits of men, notorious in other cities, but who occasionally visited us professionally. Exchanges have been made to some little extent with New York, Albany, Pittsburg, &c, and pictures received have been hung up in our gallery. As it regards the pictures of men known to the police as rogues of a high grade, very few of these, as yet, are known to exist, in any portion of the land. Generally, these men will not, under any consideration, sit for their portraits. When in custody, and are therefore secure, the question is often asked, How do you get the consent of these men and women to sit and have their likenesses taken to be hung up for general exhibition? The answer is, Sometimes by threats of thirty days' imprisonment, as the alternative of refusal; at others, and in most cases, the parties have been arrested for the commission of some crime, and having years of imprisonment before them, are reckless and regardless of consequences so far as their pictures are concerned, and yield readily to the demand therefor. The greater portion of the pictures in our gallery are the pictures taken under these circumstances; and, therefore, for any practical purposes, are by the writer deemed almost useless especially so with regard to the younger portion of them. They alter so materially in person, &c, as often to be hardly recognized after years of imprisonment. "The one great idea in the establishment of a Rogues' Gallery should be to enlarge the acquaintance of detective officers with individuals, with whom they have to do, and thus to give the officers greater facilities in the performance of official duty." g Wills, Circum. Ev. 95. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 37. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1887, March The New York Police Department - Rogues Gallery Magazine page Google Books Published in "The New York Police Department" by Richard Wheatley, in "Harpers Magazine", Volume 74, No,CCCCXLII, March, 1887, p.514. In the Photograph and Record Department, in charge of Sergeant Thomas H. Adams, are preserved about 60,000 portraits of between 6000 and 7000 criminals. Many of them have been received from other cities, and are not included in the Rogues' Gallery, which contains the busts of the "best people" arrested in NewYork. When a professional is photographed, fifty copies of the negative are taken, and the "pedigree" of the person printed on the back of each copy. One copy is then despatched to each precinct, where the pedigree is entered on the record-book, and the picture placed in the Rogues' Gallery, as at Headquarters. The remainder are retained for the use of officers, and for exchange with the police authorities of other cities. Gallery and record-book are the patented inventions of Sergeant Adams. Portraits of deceased criminals are removed from their infamous companionship, as are those of the four per cent., more or less, of living ones who turn from their evil ways when young, and by years of well-doing entitle themselves to this favor, which is granted at their own request, seconded by that of reputable business men. Should they relapse, their portraits are returned to the case. The record of each of the 1700 originals in the Rogues' Gallery comprises full physical description and biography. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 38. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1887 Pete Emerson alias "Banjo Pete" Book illustration Google Books Published in "Recollections of a New York Chief of Police" by George Washington Walling (New York: Caxton Book Concern Ltd, 1887), p.262 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 39. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1886 Title page of "Professional Criminals of America" by Thomas Byrnes (New York: Cassell & Company, 1886) Title page Google Books PREFACE. As crimes against property are of so frequent occurrence in the cities and towns of this country, it was suggested to my mind that the publication of a book describing thieves and their various ways of operating would be a great preventive against further depredations. Aware of the fact that there is nothing that professional criminals fear so much as identification and exposure, it is my belief that if men and women who make a practice of preying upon society were known to others besides detectives and frequenters of the courts, a check, if not a complete stop, would be put to their exploits. While the photographs of burglars, forgers, sneak thieves, and robbers of lesser degree are kept in police albums, many offenders are still able to operate successfully. But with their likenesses within reach of all, their vocation would soon become risky and unprofitable. Experience has shown me, during the twenty-three years of my connection with the Police Department of the City of New York, and especially the period in which I have been in command of the Detective Bureau, that bankers, brokers, commercial and business men, and the public, were strangely ignorant concerning the many and ingenious methods resorted to by rogues in quest of plunder. With the view of thwarting thieves, I have, therefore, taken this means of circulating their pictures, together with accurate descriptions of them, and interesting information regarding their crimes and methods, gathered from the most reliable sources. Many mysterious thefts are truthfully explained, and the names of the persons credited with committing them are revealed; but as information merely, without corroborative proof, is not evidence, it would be valueless in a legal prosecution. In the following pages will be found a vast collection of facts illustrative of the doings of celebrated robbers, and pains have been taken to secure, regardless of expense, excellent reproductions of their photographs, so that the law-breakers can be recognized at a glance. By consulting this book prosecuting officers and other officials will be able to save much time and expense in the identification of criminals who may fall into their hands. In the compilation of this work, information obtained from newspapers and police officials of other cities was of great assistance to me, but all the matter and data were verified before being used. Hoping that this volume will serve as a medium in the prevention and detection of crime, I remain, respectfully, THOMAS BYRNES. New York, September, 1886. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 40. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1886 The Inspector's Model Book plate Google Books Published in "Professional Criminals of America" by Thomas Byrnes (New York: Cassell & Company, 1886) Text is from pages 53-54. Sitting there the next day the reporter spoke of the impression made by the picture, and how, amid surroundings so misleading and under appearances so altered, the bowed forehead and its dark lines in the gallery of malefactors had flashed out in the gay" and fashionable throng, calling attention to their owner, as Cain's mark had done of old. The conversation which ensued is correctly given by the reporter in the following words : "In that," said Inspector Byrnes, "does the usefulness of the Rogues' Gallery lie. There are people who look at the pictures and say : 'Of what good can these twisted and unnatural faces be? Were their owners met in the streets their countenances would be composed. They would be altogether free of these distortions, by which they have tried to cheat the purpose of the police in photographing them. No one would know them then.' Well, that is all wrong. The very cleverest hands at preparing a false physiognomy for the camera have made their grimaces in vain. The sun has been to quick for them, and has imprisoned the lines of the profile and the features and caught the expression before it could be disguised. There is not a portrait here but has some marked characteristic by which you can identify the man who sat for it. That is what has to be studied in the Rogues' Gallery detail. A general idea of the looks of a person derived from one of these pictures may be very misleading. The person himself will try to make it so by altering his appearance. He can grow or shave off a beard or mustache, he can change the color of either, he may become full faced or lantern jawed in time. But the skilled detective knows all this and looks for distinguishing marks peculiar to his subject. You understand me. It was a forehead drew your attention. The lines of the forehead would probably be a detective's study in that burglar's case. It did not matter much what disguise he assumed. That feature would remain a tell-tale." "Have detectives frequently succeeded in singling out by their portraits men who have tried to deceive the camera?" "Quite frequently. The very men who have gone to the most trouble to make their pictures useless have been betrayed by them. Look at ' Pop' Tighe, over there, with his phiz screwed up like a nut-cracker; he thought that he could play the sneak without any one getting on to him from that likeness. But he made a mistake, likethe rest. So did 'Bill' Vosburgh, and even 'Jim' Reynolds, who is grinning down from the corner there, with his head away back and his features all distorted, could not get the best of the sun, and the camera caught enough of him to satisfy his victims." "Then the pictures must not be considered merely as portraits when a criminal is to be identified by them? " "In some cases they are quite sufficient. You see there is not much of that old dodge of distorting the features attempted nowadays. When we have a man with a strong case against him he knows that his portrait in some shape or other must be added to the gallery, and he is shown that it is absurd to try and defeat the purposes of justice. That makes him resigned to his fate, and all our recent artistic acquisitions are good ones. A point is made to have the best we can get, for of late photography has been an invaluable aid to the police. In the Federal service and in all the big cities they are following our example. But this is probably the most complete criminal directory in the country. I say in some cases because there are numbers of instances where a criminal appears in public under circumstances far different from those under which he is brought here. You yourself have seen what a swell cracksman may look like when he has the means and the taste to dress himself. Well, there are scores of men and women whose appearance in the streets gives no hint to their character. Deception is their business, and they have to study its arts carefully. It is true there are criminals brought here who even in sitting for a photograph in the Rogues' Gallery show a weakness to appear to advantage. I have seen women especially whose vanity cropped out the moment the muzzle of the camera was turned on them. But that is infrequent, and you must look for the faces you see here in other shapes and with other accompaniments when you catch sight of them in public." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 41. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1886 Six professional criminals Book plate Google Books Published in "Professional Criminals of America" by Thomas Byrnes (New York: Cassell & Company, 1886) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 42. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1886 Six professional criminals Book plate Google Books Published in "Professional Criminals of America" by Thomas Byrnes (New York: Cassell & Company, 1886) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 43. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1886 Edward Lyons, alias Ned Lyons. Burglar, Sneak, and Pickpocket Book plate Google Books Published in "Professional Criminals of America" by Thomas Byrnes (New York: Cassell & Company, 1886), No.70. Forty-seven years old in 1886. Born in England. Married. Stout build. Height, about 5 feet 8 inches. Weight, about 180 pounds. Hair inclined to be sandy. Wears it long, covering the ears, one of which (the left one) has the top off. Wears a very heavy reddish mustache. Bald on front of head, forming a high forehead. His picture was taken while he was asleep at the hospital in Connecticut, in 1881. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 44. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1886 Six professional criminals Book plate Google Books Published in "Professional Criminals of America" by Thomas Byrnes (New York: Cassell & Company, 1886) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 45. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1886, 6 May A Terrible Moment Magazine page Google Books Published in "Life" (New York), Volume 7, No.175, May 6, 1886, p.256. A Terrible Moment "Great Scott," said a convicted pickpocket, as he struggled to break loose, "you are not going to take my photograph, I hope?" "Yes, for the Rogues' Gallery." "Oh," he exclaimed, with a look of intense relief, "go ahead then. I was afraid you were going to make a woodcut of it for the New York World. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 46. |  | Tabor 1889 The use of finger-marks for identification Magazine page Google Books Francis Galton "Personal Identification and Description" p.177-191 in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, Volume XVIII, 1889, p.188. A San Francisco photographer, Mr. Tabor, made enlarged photographs of the finger-marks of Chinese, and his proposal to employ them as a means of identifying Chinese immigrants, seems to have been seriously considered. I may say that I can obtain no verification of a common statement that the method is in actual use in the prisons in China. The thumb-mark has been used there as elsewhere to form a manual impression in attestation of deeds, such as a man might make with a common seal, not his own, and say, "This is my act and deed; " but I cannot hear of any elaborate system of finger-marks having ever been employed in China for the identification of prisoners. It was, however, largely used in India, by Sir William Herschel, many years ago, when he was an officer of the Bengal Civil Service. He found it to be most successful in preventing personation, and in putting an end to disputes about the authenticity of deeds. He described his method fully in "Nature," in 1880 (Vol. xxiii, p. 76), which should be referred to; also a paper by Mr. Faulds in the next volume. I may in addition allude to articles in the American journal "Science," 1886 (Vol. viii, pp. 166 and 212). Also published in Nature, Volume XXXVIII, June 28, 1888, p.201 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 47. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist 1853 Illustrated Passports Magazine page Google Books Punch, Vol.XXIV, 1853, p.104. ILLUSTRATED PASSPORTS. Some ingenious individual has proposed that every foreign passport shall be stamped with a daguerreotype likeness of the bearer. This project is intended to aid in the detection of what may be termed the ugly customers who travel abroad; but it would perhaps be easy to put another and a false face upon the matter oy a few touches of the pencil. One great objection to the plan seems to be, that the artists who get their living by daguerreotype portraits would be ruined, if the Governments abroad should commence the practice of issuing a passport with a correct likeness included, for a few francs, to every traveller. This is no doubt the age of Illustration; and the idea of bringing out passports with cuts may possibly tend to give some little popularity to a system which has, hitherto, been altogether unpopular. As nobody remains the same for any length of time, and as illness may frequently alter the features, it would be hardly fair to subject a traveller to suspicion, because the light happens to have gone out of his laughing eye, or the cheek tnat was plump when his portrait was taken, may have sunk so low as to have destroyed all resemblance. Should any case of the kind occur, the Passport System will begin to assume a new series of alarming features. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 48. |  | Alphonse Bertillon n.d. Alphonse Bertillon Photograph Creative Commons - Wikipedia [Information on original source requested.] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 49. |  | Nadar n.d. Alphonse Bertillon Albumen print BIU Santé Réf. image: CIPH0061, © Coll. BIU Santé Médecine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 50. |  | Alphonse Bertillon 1885 Title page of "Identification anthropométrique : instructions signalétiques" by Alphonse Bertillon (Melun: Typographie-Lithographie Administrative, 1885) Title page Google Books This includes Annexe: Section I, "Instructions sur la maniÞre de prendre, Les photographies judiciaires destinées a faciliter les recherches dans une collection anthropometrique." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 51. |  | Unidentified photographer (French School) 1906 [Anthropometric File Card: Mr. Courtier] Gelatin silver print 14.5 x 14.5 cm (5 11/16 x 5 11/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Paper Company Collection, Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 2001, Accession Number: 2001.13 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 52. |  | Unidentified photographer (French School) 1906 [Anthropometric File Card: Mr. Youriévitch] Gelatin silver print 14.5 x 14.5 cm (5 11/16 x 5 11/16 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Gilman Paper Company Collection, Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 2001, Accession Number: 2001.14 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 53. |  | Alphonse Bertillon 1889 Criminal Jean Greniche Killer of 'La Fille Wilhem, said La Chinoise' Carte de visite Past to Present: Vintage Photo Gallery Police Studio anthropometric photograph - Bertillon system. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 54. |  | Alphonse Bertillon 1889 Criminal Jean Greniche Killer of 'La Fille Wilhem, said La Chinoise' Carte de visite, back Past to Present: Vintage Photo Gallery Police Studio anthropometric photograph - Bertillon system. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 55. |  | Alphonse Bertillon 1893 Photograph and Bertillon record of Francis Galton Identification card Creative Commons - Wikipedia Photograph and Bertillon record of Francis Galton (age 73) created upon Galton's visit to Bertillon's laboratory in 1893. Serves as a good example of Bertillon's indentification technology. Scanned from Karl Pearson's The Life, Letters, and Labors of Francis Galton, vol. 2, ch. 13, plate LII (between 382 and 383). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 56. |  | Alphonse Bertillon 1909 (ca) Tableau synoptic des traits physionomiques: pour servir a l'étude du "portrait parlé" Gelatin silver print 39.4 x 29.5 cm (15 1/2 x 11 5/8 ins) Metropolitan Museum of Art Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2009, 2009.16 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 57. |  | Alphonse Bertillon 1901 The speaking portrait Magazine illustration Creative Commons - Wikipedia The nose, as it cannot be disguised, is extremely important in identification. The types above, taking them from the left, show a low, narrow nose, a hooked nose, a straight nose, a snub nose, and a high, wide nose. "The Speaking Portrait" an article from Pearson's Magazine, 1901, illustrating the principles of Alphonse Bertillon's anthropometry. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 58. |  | Alphonse Bertillon 1893 Exhibition display Photographic print National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada A photograph from Alphonse Bertillon's photo album from his exhibition at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 59. |  | Alphonse Bertillon 1893 Bertillon's Filing System Photographic print National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada A photograph from Alphonse Bertillon's photo album from his exhibition at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 60. |  | Phil May (Artist) 1900 (published) Force of Habit Drawing Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37767 Force of Habit Prison photographer (who has just obtained the post, to sitter, who is about to undergo twenty years' penal servitude: "Now sir, look pleasant!" Source: Phil May The Phil May Album Collected by Augustus M. Moore (London: Methuen & Co, 1900) [Thanks to Allan Janus for passing on the source of this illustration, October 2011] |