Justice and Police Museum
Former water police court and station holding a haunting archive of early crime-scene mugshots.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Justice and Police Museum in Sydney centers on a trove of special photographs, around 2,500 police mugshots taken between 1910 and 1930, in which arrested thieves, forgers and con men posed however they liked instead of standing flat against a wall. It traces how the negatives sat forgotten for decades until writer Peter Doyle spent three years digging them out for a 2005 exhibition, inside a building that first served as the Water Police Court from 1856. Best explored inside the old cells at the back.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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