Photographing of criminals began in the 1840s only a few years after the invention of photography, but it was not until 1888 that French police officer Alphonse Bertillon standardized the process. A mug shot or mugshot (an informal term for police photograph, or booking photograph), is a photographic portrait typically taken after a person is arrested.
The mug shot has been an essential police procedure around the world. “Mug” is an English slang term for “face, and the original purpose of the mug shot was to allow law enforcement to have a photographic record of an arrested individual to allow for identification by victims and investigators.
Mug shots and the associated information are published regardless of whether or not the person is guilty or has been convicted of the crime they were arrested for. Generally, officials took full-face and profile photographs. If convicted, men had another set of images taken after their hair and beards were shaved off to limit the spread of lice. Women’s hair was not shaved.
Here is a vintage full-face mugshot collection of 35 prisoner photographs in North Shields, England during the First World War, both men and women, arrested for stealing money, breaking and entering, assault or even stealing ducks.
All Photos:Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Charles S. Jones,
arrested for stealing from clothes lines, 15 September 1914
Christina Austin, arrested for stealing dresses, 11 July 1916
Christina Haggerty, arrested for stealing money, 9 February 1916
Frederick Ellwood, fireman
, arrested for breaking and entering, 4 August 1914
George Bamlett
, grocer
, arrested for assault, 19 October 1914
George Fay, soldier
, arrested for stealing, 9 December 1915
George Walker, soldier
, arrested for cashing a forged cheque, 15 March 1916
Isabella McQue alias Hubbart
, arrested for stealing a sealskin coat, 18 February 1915
James George Chase, munitions
worker, arrested for obtaining money by false pretences, 22 January 1916
James White, seaman
, arrested for thefts from the Tyne Sailors’ Home, 13 March 1915
Jane A. Teasdale, arrested for obtaining food and lodgings by false pretences, 9 September 1915
Jane Agnes Duffy,
arrested for theft, 9 December 1914
Jesse Rudd, arrested for stealing money from a gas meter, 6 May 1915
John P. Wilson, soldier
, arrested for theft, 21 January 1916
John Stewart, miner, arrested for stealing ducks and hens, 24 August 1914
John T. Ingleson, soldier
, arrested for breaking and entering, 30 March 1915
John W. Hoole alias Thomas McNeish, arrested for stealing money, 6 July 1915
Lawrence Armstrong alias Hanby, soldier, arrested for theft, 30 September 1915
Lillian Tibbs, arrested for stealing a dress, 12 September 1914
Mark Schidlossky, seaman
, arrested for robbery, 3 October 1914
Matthew M. Lamb, trawler-hand, arrested for breaking and entering, 5 October 1914
Mona Wilson,
arrested for theft, 21 January 1916
Peter Taylor, coppersmith
, arrested for stealing from his employers, 13 May 1915
Reginald Stains alias Brown, chief steward, arrested for false pretences, 4 December 1915
Robert Jackson, hawker, arrested for stealing money, 2 July 1915
Robert Muir, miner
, arrested for stealing potatoes, 17 August 1914
Rolf Halversen
, fireman, arrested for stealing money, 15 December 1914
Sarah Cuthill, arrested for stealing clothes, 20 July 1916
Sarah Dowd, arrested for stealing money, 9 February 1916
Thomas Dodds, labourer
, arrested for robbery, 3 October 1914
Thomas Harrington, arrested for indecent assault, 28 September 1914
Thomas Henry Miller, soldier
, arrested for theft, 25 November 1915
Walter Firth, soldier
, arrested for pawning military uniform, 19 October 1914
Wilhelmina Armstrong, arrested for stealing dresses, 11 July 1916
William Glendinning, labourer
, arrested for theft, 22 February 1915
