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1 December 2008
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Victorian Mugshots Gallery

By Steve Jones

Surely the greatest discovery for anybody researching their family tree is a photograph from Victorian times. Most 19th century pictures featured portraits of fairly affluent families, dressed in their finery, posing compliantly and severely for the camera.

In libraries, museums and archives up and down the country, however, many thousands of photos of a completely different nature are stored away. Their subjects are unwilling sitters who scowl defiantly and menacingly at the camera as their likenesses are captured for posterity - not for the family album - but for police and prison records.

Click on an image below to enter the gallery
Joseph Smedley
Joseph Smedley
'Paddy the Devil'
'Paddy the Devil'
Mary Davies
Mary Davies
Catherine Read
Catherine Read
Thomas Murphy
Thomas Murphy
Rebecca Fineberg
Rebecca Fineberg
Amy Gill
Amy Gill
William Douglas
William Douglas

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