brian cassidy bookselle

14.
[Crime]: [Mugshots]
PROPERTY OF THE NEWPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Wanted and Unwanted Persons [Cover Title]
(Newport, OR), [ca. 1930s-1940s]
Oblong 4to. ledger. 3/4 leather over red cloth. 8” x 10.25” approx.
Multiple ink-stamps of E. E. Chambers to front cover. Containing 65
mugshots, most 3” x 5”, with a few snapshot and one 8” x 10” enlargement.
Most with crimes and personal details typed or printed
to versos. Also: four crime scene photos of evidence (fingerprints,
footprints, etc.) as well as several related newspaper clippings.
[26pp.] mounted both recto and verso to thirteen leaves (with remainder
of ledger blank). Most images loosely mounted in photo corners.
Some with additional annotation below. A number of leaves at front
of ledger removed. One or two images apparently perished, else remarkably
complete. Many with old tape residue to a number of photos,
but largely unobtrusive. Binding shaken but sound. Very good overall.
A excellent example of a quintessentially American vernacular form:
the mugshot. Compiled by the police chief of Newport, Oregon, this
homemade assemblage — likely for station or precinct reference
— gathers both male and female offenders (mostly escapees) from
throughout the Pacific Northwest: rapists, burglars, murderers,
"joy-riders," check-bouncers, forgers, car thieves, armed robbers,
and other various scoundrels. But also many more poignant entries:
an amnesia victim ("Seems to know a lot about precious metals"), the
20-year-old runaway from multiple boys homes with a scar running
the entire length of his cheek, a Bonnie and Clyde-ish couple (above,
right). An arresting (sorry) collection of folk portraiture.
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