Courtesy of past guest, Karolina Waclawiak, who posted the link on Facebook, don’t miss a wonderful tour of mysterious glass-plate mug shots from 1920s Australia, over on NPR.
NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice & Police Museum/Historic Houses Trust of NSW
Many secrets reside in each and every one.
So many of those women look alike. Sallow, lined and drooping faces.
Wow, the first one is an incredible story! A woman pretending to be a man in 1920s australia–that’s a novel if I ever read one.
Excellent. The photo above puts me in mind of Edward Gorey – maybe the elaborate period dress and the off-center position of the woman? I love, love photographs of criminals and crime scenes, not to mention transcripts of confessions and interrogations. I can get lost in books and websites with photos like these for hours. Weegee photographs and almost anything with Luc Sante’s name on it are at least worth a look. To be honest, I don’t just love them, I need them, to open the right pathways in my head to write. There are details you can’t live without. I just read a great description of Bonnie and Clyde’s tattoos – they both had them, but neither had tattoos of the other’s names or likenesses (there probably just wasn’t time – Clyde got out of jail in February of ’32 and by May of ’34 they were dead). Clyde had a Navy tattoo, though he wasn’t ever in the service. What was that about?
The Abbott Gran Medicine Show