The Pinkerton Agency
Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884)
Pinkerton National Detective Agency
Wanted advertisement in Spanish
Page 2
Manuscript Division (233,
233.1a,b)
De Young Studios, New York
[Harry Longbaugh and Etta Place]
Unknown Studio, Fort Worth, Texas
Manuscript Division (233, 233.1a,b)
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Pinkerton Inc. (formerly Pinkerton National Detective Agency),
founded by Scottish immigrant Allan Pinkerton in 1850, is the
nation's oldest and largest security services company. Pinkerton's
Inc., donated to the Library an archive for the years 1850-1937
that includes numerous criminal investigations, "mug shots," promotional
materials, code books, an early form of a credit card, personnel
records, and printed instructions for agency detectives. Two-thirds
of the collection documents criminal activity from 1880-1910 --
including tracking the famed "Wild Bunch." Pinkerton obtained
these photographs of Harry "The Sundance Kid" Longbaugh with his
mistress Etta Place and other members of the gang and used their
images in agency "WANTED" posters. The gang photograph taken in
Fort Worth, Texas, at the insistence of Butch Cassidy, to showcase
their newly purchased derby hats became the gang's undoing. Unaware
of his sitters' identities, the photographer displayed the image
in his shop window, where the members were recognized by a law
enforcement officer.
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