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Collection

Mugshots Collection, ca. 1892-1920

approximately 100 photographs

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.

Items of particular interest include:
  • 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

Collection

Police and Detective wanted and reward scrapbook, 1916-1918 (majority within 1917-1918)

12 pages

These 12 scrapbook pages contain announcements, reward and wanted advertisements and circulars, typed notes, and police letters and telegrams for individuals wanted by the law. The crimes include illegally collecting subscription money, destruction of a powder magazine at the Navy Yard on Mare Island, family desertion, failure to provide for the family or minor children, auto theft, murder, embezzlement, horse stealing, larceny, bank robbery, burglary, fraud, and others. The primary geographical locations are Sacramento and San Francisco, California; other advertisements are from Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois, and other California locations. The bulk of the wanted individuals are white, but several represent Japanese, Greek, and Mexican perpetrators. One letter from the William J. Burns International Detective Agency, Inc., dated April 20, 1918, includes a pasted-on mugshot photograph of Manuel Schenone.

These 12 scrapbook pages contain announcements, reward and wanted advertisements and circulars, typed notes, and police letters and telegrams for individuals wanted by the law. The crimes include illegally collecting subscription money, destruction of a powder magazine at the Navy Yard on Mare Island, family desertion, failure to provide for the family or minor children, auto theft, murder, embezzlement, horse stealing, larceny, bank robbery, burglary, fraud, and other crimes. The primary geographical locations are Sacramento and San Francisco, California; other advertisements are from Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, Oregon, Illinois, and other California locations. The bulk of the wanted individuals are white, but several represent Japanese, Greek, and Mexican perpetrators. One letter from the William J. Burns International Detective Agency, Inc., dated April 20, 1918, includes a pasted-on mugshot photograph of Manuel Schenone. Schenone, "a well known Bunko man", served four years in Folsom Prison and now is wanted for holding up the Yokohama Specie Bank.

The scrapbook pages were once part of a larger volume and bear the printed page numbers 79, 80, 147, 148, 155, 156, 157, 158, 161, 162, 165, and 166; plus one unpaginated partial page.

Collection

William L. Culbertson, Jr., Scrapbook, 1905-1918

1 volume

The William L. Culbertson, Jr., scrapbook consists of one volume containing numerous newspaper clippings, documents, photographs, hand-drawn maps and illustrations, correspondence, and various ephemeral items related to the career of US Navy officer CDR William Linn Culbertson, Jr., between 1905 and 1918.

The William L. Culbertson, Jr., scrapbook consists of one volume containing numerous newspaper clippings, documents, photographs, hand-drawn maps and illustrations, correspondence, and various ephemeral items related to the career of US Navy officer CDR William Linn Culbertson, Jr., between 1905 and 1918.

The volume (25.5 x 19 cm) has 146 pages and is bound in red marbled paper covers. The covers and spine are in poor condition. Inside of the front cover there is a loose diplomatic passport for Culbertson, Jr., issued by the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France, from August 1916 that contains personal descriptive information as well as a photographic ID portrait. The scrapbook begins with newspaper clippings from ca. 1905 and subsequent materials proceed in chronological order for the most part. Numerous items collected during Culbertson, Jr.’s time abroad contain text in foreign languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, German, Arabic, and Greek.

Items of particular interest include:
  • Hand-drawn portrait of a man playing cards and smoking a pipe (between pgs. 2 & 3)
  • Clipping related to court martial of Iowan midshipman Charles M. James for alleged involvement in hazing (pg. 5)
  • Photomechanical image of the U.S.S. Missouri (pg.7)
  • 1906 New York herald clipping with full page illustrated article titled "At Sea with the Naval Cadets Annual Cruise of the Boys to Learn Practical Seamanship" (pg. 9)
  • An order from Lt. CDR Cleland Davis of the U.S.S. Missouri dated May 24, 1906 instructing Culbertson, Jr., to "take charge of the remains of J. J. Molloy, fireman 1st class" who died from asphyxiation while ashore in New York City (pg. 11)
  • A letter received March 27, 1906 while the U.S.S. Missouri was in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, regarding Culbertson, Jr.'s request to be assigned to a torpedo boat that will "make the trip to the Asiatic Station" (pg. 17)
  • Ca. 1906 clipping regarding Culbertson, Sr.'s real estate dealings (pg. 19)
  • Typescript copies of the "Plan for the Occupation of St. Marc, Hayti" dated February 1916 (between pgs. 30 & 31)
  • Program for the "Memorial Service in memory of the Culbertsons, of 'Culbertson's row' and their descendants who served in the War of the American Revolution" held at Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church, Franklin County, Pennsylvania on September 15, 1907 (pg. 37)
  • Pamphlet detailing "Facilities for American Seamen on shore leave in Rio de Janeiro, January, 1908" which includes a map of Rio's commercial district (pg. 41)
  • Clippings of an article regarding Surgeon General Presley M. Rixley's opinion that medical officers be placed in command of hospital ships (pg. 44) and a satirical cartoon titled "When the Navy puts doctors in command of the hospital ships" (pg. 45)
  • A humorous mock notice issued to Culbertson, Jr., in September 1908 while aboard the U.S.S. South Dakota sent by "Neptune Rex" and undersigned by "Secretary to his Majesty Davy Jones" (pg. 52)
  • A manuscript map detailing features of American Samoa (pg. 53)
  • Clippings of three cartoons from a series titled "Trials of a First Baby" (pgs. 54-57)
  • Letter from oiler J. J. Murphy dated May 23, 1907, requesting permission to purchase his discharge from the U.S. Navy in order to return home to Ireland following the deaths of two brothers; obituary clipping attached (between pgs. 68 & 69)
  • Manuscript item in Japanese (pg. 73)
  • New York herald clipping giving Culbertson, Jr.'s account of what he saw in the aftermath of the 1907 earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica (pg. 76)
  • Manuscript map detailing the valley of the Artibonite River in Haiti, likely ca. 1915/1916 (between pgs. 86 & 87)
  • Manuscript map detailing prospective plan of attack on St. Marc, Haiti, relative to the U.S.S. Des Moines, likely ca. 1916 (pg. 99)
  • Passport for Culbertson, Jr., issued by the American Consulate in Alexandria, Egypt, on December 31, 1915 (pg. 115)
  • Clipping of a humorous joke anecdote about a woman from San Francisco who contacted her deceased husband "John" with help from a spiritualist medium only to find he was much happier being dead than he ever was living with her (pg. 118)
  • Memorandum dated October 13, 1915, regarding damages to the U.S.S. Brutus and U.S.S. Des Moines (pg. 129)
  • Two French travel permits for Culbertson, Jr., issued by the Departement des Alpes-Maritimes in 1916 (pgs. 136 & 137)
  • Numerous playbills, tickets, receipts, stamps, business cards (including cards for foreign naval officers), schedules, menus, advertisements, event invitations, social club notices, and other ephemeral items collected at various ports of call including Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Shanghai, Yokohama, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, New York City, Alexandria, Cyprus, Naples, etc. (passim)
  • Numerous clippings related to World War I (passim)