MUGSHOTS ON A MUG — THREE WOMEN OF NEBRASKA

Three women. Three criminal records. Three extraordinary stories preserved by the police camera.

Nebraska, USA, early twentieth century.

This glossy black ceramic mug features three authentic police portraits from the collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society.

Each photograph records a different encounter with the American criminal justice system.

LOLA LOPEZ — A MURDER CASE, 1922

In January 1922, Lola Lopez became involved in a murder case in Sidney, Nebraska.

Her companion, Cicerio Estrada, killed and robbed a man named Stephen Pann. The pair fled to Colorado but were captured and returned to Nebraska.

Lopez pleaded not guilty to murder but admitted knowing about the crime. Her prison record classified her offence as manslaughter.

She served two years, two months, and 22 days in prison.

MINNIE BRADLEY — THE RELUCTANT PORTRAIT, 1902

Minnie Bradley was 27 when she was arrested in Omaha on December 11, 1902, for theft from another person.

Her police record listed her occupation as prostitute and noted that she wore a wig.

Unlike the conventional frontal mugshot, Minnie turned her gaze away from the camera.

Her photograph preserves a small but striking moment of resistance to the institutional gaze.

RUBY FOX — THE GREAT ESCAPE

Ruby Fox was serving time for breaking and entering at Nebraska's State Reformatory for Women.

There she met Myrtle Hetrick, imprisoned for vagrancy.

Unhappy with their treatment, the two women escaped with the assistance of an unidentified man and fled in an automobile.

They were eventually captured in Casper, Wyoming.

After returning to Nebraska, they requested imprisonment in the state penitentiary rather than the reformatory. Both received one-year sentences for escaping custody.

THE HISTORY OF THE MUGSHOT

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, photography became a central instrument of police identification.

Yet these photographs preserve more than official records. They reveal clothing, hairstyles, individual expressions, and fragments of lives rarely documented elsewhere.

They also remind us that a police photograph presents an institutional record, not a complete account of a person's identity.

WHY MUGSHOTS ON A MUG?

In English, mug means both a drinking vessel and, informally, a human face.

A mugshot is a police identification photograph.

Three historical mugshots on an actual mug create an appropriate little linguistic joke.

THE DESIGN

Three original archival portraits are arranged around a glossy black ceramic mug, preserving their historic appearance and identification markings.

Available in 11 oz and 15 oz sizes.

READING FRAMES — EVERYDAY ARCHIVES

Reading Frames is an independent visual-history project and YouTube channel exploring archival photography and the stories behind historical images.

Everyday Archives brings selected photographs into contemporary objects, creating unexpected encounters with the past.

Reading Frames — History, Reframed.