[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters]
Unknown
1936–47 · Gelatin silver prints · Photographs
![[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters] — Unknown](https://d2pvxr3eb77vb4.cloudfront.net/assets/v1/ea/ea029c4c5c3acfb68fc38242fdf3ac7692bd5bb855ea627e02a7bc58e839c4a7/full.webp)
This wooden file drawer contains identification cards with tipped-in mug shots of forty-six mostly female shoplifters apprehended in the late 1930s and 1940s near Baltimore, Maryland. Although they were created as utilitarian instruments, the photographs survive as extraordinary visual artifacts—unvarnished portraits of individuals whose faces convey a potent blend of vulnerability, boredom, and defiance.
- Artist
- Unknown
- Date
- 1936–47
- Medium
- Gelatin silver prints
- Department
- Photographs
- Credit line
- The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2013
