Discover SLM
Find a weekly summary of what’s new across our channels, look up activities to do at home with the family, including in the kitchen and the garden, explore our properties and our collections, and settle in for some good long reads.
This week’s focus:
In a city founded on the shores of the harbour, the waterfront has always hummed with adventure and misadventure. This week we're sharing the fascinating story of underworld Sydney – from bushrangers to sly grog, razor gangs to forensics. Through stories, collection objects and our vast archive of crime-scene photographs, journey into the world of those who broke the law and those who enforced it.
Follow us on social media for more. #DiscoverSLM
Story
A gritty business
Step into the dark side of Sydney’s past with a visit to the Water Police station and courts that once made up one of the city’s busiest legal hubs. Crooks and cops, thugs and judges, locals and drifters, the guilty and the innocent have all left their stories here.
Collection
NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive
The Justice & Police Museum cares for an eclectic collection of material relating to Sydney’s criminal and policing history, including the NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, made up of approximately 130,000 negatives in both glass-plate and cellulose film formats taken between 1910 and 1964.
Online exhibition
Underworld
Immerse yourself in the dark side of the Roaring Twenties, a golden era for criminals. Explore online our collection of candid and compelling mugshots taken by police between 1920 and 1930. Known as the ‘Specials’, they are unlike any found elsewhere in the world.
Learning
Wanted! Bushrangers live
School students can come face to face with bushrangers at the Justice & Police Museum during Sydney Living Museums’ next live virtual excursion on 26 November. Free.
Online puzzles
Get puzzling
Take a moment to relax and recharge with one of our online puzzles featuring our beautiful collections and museums.
Display
Bentwood chairs
Bentwood chairs appear in many mugshot photographs from the 1920s ‘Specials’ collection in the NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, mostly taken at Sydney’s Central Police Station.
Watch
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Underworld - Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties
Duration: 1:13
Underworld - Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties
The Underworld exhibition explores Sydney’s seedy underworld during the Roaring Twenties through mugshots taken by New South Wales police. In this video, curator Nerida Campbell discusses the exhibition and this internationally unique collection of photographs.
Duration: 1:13
More stories
A dubious defence
On 19 October 1921 Herbert Burridge, cook, 28 years of age, 5 feet 8½ inches tall, fair complexion, light brown hair and blue eyes, was listed in the New South Wales Police Gazette as a deserter from HMAS Cerberus.
If these walls could talk: Justice & Police Museum
The Justice & Police Museum houses the Water Police Station, Water Police Court and Police Court that once made up one of the city’s busiest legal hubs. Crooks and cops, thugs and judges, locals and drifters – the guilty and the innocent have all left their stories here.
Patrick Roach: a well-connected bruiser
Described by police as ‘one of the most daring burglars we have had in Sydney for a great number of years’1, Patrick Roach was an inveterate thief and a vicious thug.
Police photographer George Howard
George B Howard was a prominent police photographer in Sydney during the 1920s, when the use of photography was emerging strongly as an aid to identification and the investigation of crime.
The 1910 Collection
Beating steadily at the heart of the Justice & Police Museum is the so-called 1910 Collection. Read about the many items and the stories that lay lurking in its shadows.
The archive’s negatives
The New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive contains photographic negatives in several formats and sizes created between around 1910 and 1964. These negatives are both a record of how New South Wales Police used photography and a reflection of how photographic technology changed during these decades.
The Hawk strikes again!
During the 1920s, inner Sydney was overrun with gangsters looking to make a name for themselves – sometimes literally.
When masks were compulsory
In a year when COVID-19 devastates the world, it’s timely to reflect on an earlier pandemic that affected every aspect of life, including at our properties.
‘Well have we loved’
Awaiting execution at Darlinghurst Gaol in 1880, bushranger Captain Moonlite wrote moving letters describing his feelings for fellow gang member Jim Nesbitt.
Online shop
Latest news
Sydney Open
Share your thoughts on Sydney Open 2020Friday 13 November 2020
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year's Sydney Open. We’d love to hear your thoughts about our first-ever digital program, and we invite you to complete our short online survey.
Media release
Meroogal Women’s Art Prize 2020 Winners’ AnnouncementWednesday 23 September 2020
The Meroogal Women’s Art Prize celebrates the creativity of female artists in NSW. The 2020 Winners were announced at a modest event at the Meroogal house museum.
Rouse Hill Estate
Play along with us: House Music at Your HouseMonday 17 August 2020
We invite you to join us in a new musical experiment, bringing the music of the 19th century into the 21st century. We’ve delved into the hundreds of popular songs that survive in the collection at Rouse Hill Estate and we’ve also asked some brilliant musicians to help you explore these pieces of music from their homes and in our historic houses.
Learning
EOI: 2021 Learning Advisory Panels – Primary and SecondaryTuesday 24 November 2020
