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Justice & Police Museum

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    Mug shot of Hampton Hirscham, Cornellius Joseph Keevil, William Thomas O'Brien and James O'Brien, 20 July 1921, Central Police Station, Sydney. Sydney Living Museums

    New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive

    The remarkable New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive is made up of approximately 130,000 negatives in both glass-plate and cellulose film formats, taken between 1910 and 1964.

    The images in the archive document, in all their gritty and at times confronting detail, Sydney, Australia’s ‘Sin City’ – its people, their misfortunes and their crimes. Sydney Living Museums now shares images from this collection through exhibitions, books and online stories.

    More about the Collection

    Closeup of glass negative of dual mugshot being held by two hands in gloves.

    The Collection: New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive

    Nestled between Sydney Harbour and the city skyscrapers is a squat cluster of sandstone buildings known today as the Justice & Police Museum. Occupying what was once one of the colony’s busiest legal complexes, the museum cares for an eclectic collection of material relating to Sydney’s criminal and policing history. This includes the remarkable New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive.
    Group of cardboard boxes on table.

    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.

    Related exhibitions & events

    City of Shadows

    Inner city crime & mayhem 1912-1948

    Free entry every Saturday & Sunday, 10am-5pm
    Justice & Police Museum

    Curator Peter Doyle describes this exhibition as ‘an intimate, raw and hauntingly beautiful record of the mysterious people and dark places of a Sydney lost’.

    Notorious Criminals: A Snapshot of Sinister Sydney

    Free entry every Saturday & Sunday, 10am-5pm
    Justice & Police Museum

    Sydney’s first European settlers were criminals – not an auspicious start – and the city has maintained its reputation for breeding some of the world’s hardest, most malevolent and cunning crooks.

    Breakers: the dying art of safebreaking

    Free entry every Saturday & Sunday, 10am-5pm
    Justice & Police Museum

    Sydney was once infested by safebreakers. Some were sophisticated specialists like Richard Reynolds, who used the latest technology to crack safes. Others like Kong Lee had a more slap-dash approach – stuff the safe with explosives and hope the neighbours don’t complain about the noise when it blows.

    Mugshots: a gallery

    See images directly sourced from our Pictures Catalogue. For the most recent research and stories, visit Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties.