One of the pics in the big book Underworld: Mugshots From the Roaring Twenties, this is Barbara Turner Taylor (among other aliases). The book is full of photos of Sydneysiders arrested in the 1920s. As soon as I read in the caption Barbara had written a book about her cons and scams, I looked at the National Library of Australia catalogue online to see if it had a copy - and within within a few minutes had downloaded it in full from the website and printed it out at home. I can see by a formal photo portrait of the fresh-faced, younger author in the book it’s the same Barbara, with those pale eyes and dark lashes. What amazing cornucopias our public museums and libraries are. The extraordinary ‘Specials’ photos survived as glass plate negatives and have been reprinted by Sydney Living Museums for books and exhibitions. Candid photos of people in the lock-up were done this way only for about 10 years, with added, full-length shots like ‘street photography’ showing hats, even veils, holey shoes, sagging stockings, and arrestee-chosen poses, instead of the boring mug shots we know today. The style was chosen and applied by the police photographer, George Howard who left the job in 1929. #roaring20s #1920s #1920smugshots #barbaraturnertaylor #conwomen #grifters #courtstories #crimestories #australianhistory #truecrime #sydneypolicemuseum #sydneylivingmuseums @sydlivmus @national_library_of_australia