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[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters]

1936–47

Not on view

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.

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

[File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters], Unknown (American), Gelatin silver prints

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Title: [File Drawer with 46 Mugshots of Shoplifters]

Artist: Unknown (American)

Date: 1936–47

Medium: Gelatin silver prints

Dimensions: Each photograph, approx.: 3 × 5 in. (7.6 × 12.7 cm)
Drawer: 47 × 25.1 × 1.6 cm (18 1/2 × 9 7/8 × 5/8 in.)

Classification: Photographs

Credit Line: The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2013

Accession Number: 2013.949a–tt

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