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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Northumberland => Topic started by: JenB on Saturday 05 November 11 17:07 GMT (UK)
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Tyne and Wear Archives have just put online on flikr a fantastic set of 84 photos of convicted criminals from the Newcastle City Gaol and House of Correction Collection.
Each photo is accompanied by the persons name, age, place of birth and occupation, as well as the crime and sentence.
Some of the photos are of children as young as 11.
Well worth looking at.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/sets/72157625464218629/with/5257838998/
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Wow Jen...What a find....Certainly worth adding this one to favourites :o
Nice one ;D
Carol
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Excellent! No names I recognise so far but certainly worth keeping in favourites.
I like the statements re 'no known copyright'
Christine
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It's great isn't it Christine...Not just "Crims" either...there are other photos too 8)
Carol
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I wonder why these photos were taken? Presumably at the time it was quite a laborious and expensive business. I have just been reading about the Victorian idea that criminals weren't quite human, but some sort of throw-back to the apes and that you could see which people were criminals simply by looking at their faces and the shape of their heads. Could these have been taken as part of a 'scientific' study into criminals?
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Quite a few of these "criminals" were Gaoled for theft of food and clothing, basic essentials, can you imagine how big our prisons would be today if we had the same strict sentences? (wish we had).
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Fantastic photos. Very sad to see an 11 year old sent down for seven days hard labour! Last year I visited Melbourne Old Gaol (of Ned Kelly fame) and I'm sure they had a display on Victorian attitudes to crime and how science was brought in to justify crime. Some scientists even had maps of the brain to study and explain how criminals were some how a genetic mutation. Thanks for sharing! The photo is a shot of the old gallows.