Feb
7
Help MdHS solve this photo mystery. We want to know what is happening in this photograph:
Detective room, Police Department
ca. 1910
Hughes Company
8x10 inch glass negative
Hughes Company Collection
Maryland Historical Society
Z9.584.PP8I found this photograph in the Hughes Collection about a year ago. This is definitely the most disturbing photograph I’ve seen at MdHS. Being completely nonplussed, I started asking around about it - historians, journalists, etc. but no one had a definite answer but provided great speculations and observations. MdHS Library Blog “underbelly”, created a post to help solve the mystery (“Masked Mystery” by Joe Tropea).
Here are the facts:
- There are no other photos in the collection that relate to this one (that we know of).
- There are 15 masked individuals and three unmasked individuals.
- The masks are folded in the middle around the nose and have a pattern around the edges, similar to a napkin.
- The African American man on the platform seems calm (for someone in a mysterious situation), is wearing a visible wedding ring, and has a pin on his coat.
- There is a newspaper on the table with a note across is which I thought said “Lot 001” but it’s difficult to tell.
- This is definitely ca. 1900-1920 as the original format is glass negative and this is definitely after the invention of electricity.
- Just because the photo was labeled “detective room” does not mean that this is absolute truth. Often times people will write a description several years after the photo made it’s way to MdHS. It may not have been The Hughes Company who wrote this description.
- The Hughes Company was a commercial photography company in Baltimore from the late 1800s until the 1970s. They mostly photographed construction, buildings, events, professionals, etc. in the Baltimore area.
- This is too early in Baltimore history to be the first African American police officer. The first African American to join the police department was Violet Hill Whyte in 1937.
