22 August 2012

Police Mugshots of 1930s Criminals

All of these men were caught by the long arm of the British law by police in the 1930s. Amazingly, this collection was recently discovered in a junk shop in the northeast of England.  Later they were donated to the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums and have been recently released on its Flickr Photostream. The clarity of many of them is, to not put too fine a point on it, arresting.

26 July 2011

Prisoner 4100

This miserable looking little boy is Prisoner 4100.  The picture was taken in 1872 after his arrest for stealing rabbits.  Young George Davey as he was known was ten years old.  He was sentenced to a month’s hard labour. If he were still alive today he would be 149 years old.