'Rendering our Criminal Procedure More Perfect': 19th-Century Forensic Photography at Home and Abroad

In 1873–4 more than 175 former inmates of the Port Arthur penal establishment were photographed. These images have become iconic and are often used to illustrate the negative impact of transportation—the washed up old lags captured on glass plates before they shuffled off-stage leaving Tasmania to face a brighter cleaner future. A closer look at these images and the circumstances surrounding their creation reveals a more complex story. There are question marks about who took these remarkable images and why, and where and how they ended up being used. This paper will attempt to answer some of these questions and place the series in an international context.