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The Mugshots collection consists of approximately 100 photographic portraits produced between 1892 and 1920, the vast majority of which are mugshots.

The Mugshots collection consists of approximately 100 photographic portraits produced between 1892 and 1920, the vast majority of which are mugshots. The collection includes real photographic postcards, mounted and unmounted paper prints, and one severely tarnished tintype. Also present are two fingerprint identification cards with handwritten lists containing names of numerous individuals represented in the collection. A small number of photographs appear to be standard studio portraits. Photographs range in size from 6 x 10.5 cm to 11 x 17 cm.

Many of the mugshots have printed and/or handwritten information on their versos, including names, known aliases, nationalities, birth dates/locations, occupations, arrest dates, names of arresting police officers, criminal charges, sentences, prison locations, remarks on physical appearances, and Bertillon measurements. Most of these images were produced in various places in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, with Philadelphia being the most represented location. The mugshots are mainly of white male subjects, though there are also four mugshots of women present. Five African American individuals (four men, one women) are also pictured. A substantial number of mugshots are of individuals from immigrant backgrounds, including Italians, Irish, Austrians, Germans, Poles, Greeks, Jews, etc. Approximately 90 individuals are personally identified in total. Recorded criminal charges include shoplifting, pickpocketing, larceny, burglary, forgery, embezzlement, false pretense, flimflamming, auto theft, horse theft, conspiracy, attempted murder, and murder. Specific police departments and correctional facilities represented include the Pennsylvania Department of State Police, Harrisburg Department of Police, Philadelphia Bureau of Police, Hartford Police Department, Newark Department of Police, Auburn Prison, Sing Sing Prison, City of New York Police Department, City of Boston Police Department, Camden Bureau of Police, Baltimore Police Department, Bureau of Criminal Investigation for the New Jersey Reformatory in Rahway (now East Jersey State Prison), U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, City of Paterson Police Department, Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, Montgomery County Prison (Norristown), Columbus Department of Police, City of Wilkes-Barre Bureau of Police, Trenton Department of Public Safety, New York House of Refuge, and the Reading Department of Police.

• a 1921 mugshot of an Italian man named Peter Erico, who was executed by electric chair on September 25 1922 along with Antonio Puntario after the pair were found guilty of murdering Detective Samuel Lucchino
• a 1909 mugshot of an eighteen year old Jewish man named Albert Steinberg, accused of pickpocketing
• two different mugshots of Irishman John Shelvin (accused of pickpocketing) taken in 1897 and 1906 following arrests in Philadelphia and Baltimore
• a 1920 mugshot of German houseworker Minnie Schissel, charged with theft
• a 1909 mugshot of accused shoplifter Marie Clark
• a 1915 mugshot of an African American man named King Brown, charged with illegal dynamite explosion, assault, and other crimes
• a ca. 1903 mugshot of larceny suspect Edward Stevenson, a "fugitive from Phil. Pa."; handwritten inscriptions on verso include note to address information to Detective E. H. Parker
• a ca. 1906 mugshot of German engineer and fireman Frank Schleiman with identifying details and a $50 reward notice for information on his whereabouts following his escape from Sing Sing Prison on December 9 1906 handwritten on the verso
• a 1908 mugshot of “dishonest servant” Blanche Grisson
• a 1919 mugshot of a Mexican man named Pedro Susman, charged with shoplifting
• two copies of a portrait or mugshot of African American man James Timberlake with identifying details handwritten on verso
• a 1908 mugshot of an Austrian butcher named Herman Haubt, convicted of 2nd degree murder
• an undated mugshot of an African American woman named Pearl Williams, charged with being a dishonest servant
• a 1906 mugshot of bartender Sam Davis (accused of pick pocketing) produced by detective Harry C. White of Harrisburg
• a ca. 1918 mugshot of Oliver Denton Bender taken in Columbus, Ohio, including an attached note that lists twelve of Bender’s known aliases
• a 1900 mugshot of Irishman John Mackey, charged with till tapping; two 1918 mugshots of Italian barbers Nicholas Shieno and Frank Rinaldo, both of whom were charged with flimflamming after being arrested in Scranton, Pennsylvania
• a 1918 mugshot of Jewish printer David Schleimer taken at the New York House of Refuge on Randall’s Island
• a 1917 mugshot of Michael J. Sullivan, charged with murder

The Sophie Toclanny Photograph Collection consists of 25 postcards (including 15 real photo postcards and 10 color printed cards) and 2 photographic prints, most of which were sent by Chiricahua Apache woman Sophie Toclanny to a white American family living in Pennsylvania in the early twentieth century.

The Sophie Toclanny Photograph Collection consists of 25 postcards (including 15 real photo postcards and 10 color printed cards) and 2 photographic prints, the majority of which were sent by Chiricahua Apache woman Sophie Toclanny to a white American family living in Pennsylvania in the early twentieth century.

The collection contains postcards and photographs sent by Sophie to the family of George K. (1870-1937) and Susan E. Geiser (1871-1939) living at 731 Moss St., Reading, Pennsylvania. It is unclear how Sophie came to know the Geiser family; it is possible that she made their acquaintance through either of her first two husbands, both of whom graduated from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Her messages to the Geiser family indicate that she had a close, ongoing relationship with them. Sophie inquires about Geiser family members including their son William “Bill” G. Geiser (1891-1924), refers to gifts she is sending them such as a traditional Apache cradleboard, and expresses dismay that they are not writing her as often as she would like. One undated real photo postcard bears an image originally taken by Edward Bates of an unidentified Comanche woman carrying a child in a cradleboard; Sophie's message states that “They [the Comanche] dress all to gather [sic] different from the way we dress. I am sending you one of my self in Indian dress too.” In another undated real photo postcard showing another Bates photo captioned “Apache Babe and Cradle”, Sophie writes that she is “sending you a cradle like the Apache make for their babies. On this card a real one. This was taken out in their hay camp. I am so sorry that I was so long in sending it. But hope you will like it.” A number of postcards show wear or damage on the corners, suggesting that they were likely kept in an album for some period of time.

Sophie identifies herself and other family members in several of the real photo postcards. In one photograph showing six people posing on rocks near a dam waterfall on the Mescalero Reservation, Sophie identifies herself as the individual at left “sitting down by my little sister.” The young girl in this photograph is likely Sophie’s younger sister Edith, while the “married sister” standing at right is likely Emma. Both Edith and Emma appear in multiple photographs. Unidentified individuals in the family photos include an uncle, a cousin, the husband of said cousin, and a white woman who apparently married another one of Sophie’s uncles.

Other items of particular interest include postcards with images of Apache camps in Oklahoma and New Mexico; the Apache mission at Fort Sill; the funeral of Comanche chief Quanah Parker; portraits of Indian families (including a group portrait of a Sac & Fox family by W. H. Martin), mothers, and women; and portraits of famous Native American chiefs including Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Eagle Feather, and Red Cloud. The Red Cloud postcard bears the message “From a friend you have forgotten. But she never will forget you. Ft Sill Friend.”, while the Geronimo postcard reads “I received the pretty card to-day. I was glad to get it. So in return I thought I will send you one of Geronimo. I guess you all heard of him. What ever became of William. How is little girl now. From Sophie.” The postcards bearing images of Red Cloud, Eagle Feather, and Sitting Bull are all based on reproductions of original paintings by L. Peterson that were photographed and copyrighted by H. H. Tammen in the early twentieth century. Other color printed postcards include images of Pueblo Indians selling pottery, a Pueblo Indian infant, an Indian camp scene at the 101 Ranch in Bliss, Oklahoma, and an illustrated scene of an Indian woman going over a waterfall in a canoe titled “Red Man’s Fact.”

One color printed postcard bearing a portrait of Mohawk chief Bright Canoe was produced in the 1960s and thus could not have been included by Sophie.

Several real photo postcards include photographs taken by Edward Bates (1858-1941). Based in Lawton, Oklahoma, Bates took numerous portraits of Native Americans living at nearby Fort Sill. Bates is known to have produced at least one portrait of Edith Toclanny, and it is possible that he photographed other members of the Toclanny family.