Crime Scene Sketches: What, Where, When and Why?

A woodcut published in The Times in 1806 of the scene of the murder of Isaac Blight is generally regarded as the first publication of a crime scene sketch. Such innovative early sketches have attracted surprisingly little scholarly attention. In this paper, we question: Who was Blight, and who killed him? Why was this crime considered sufficiently different and important by the newspaper that it chose to accompany its report with a sketch of the scene? What was the purpose of the sketch: was it to aid understanding, or for ‘entertainment’? Who was responsible for its creation? And how was it produced? We examine the purpose, style, and content of crime scene sketches drawing on examples in English newspapers c.1800-1850. We argue that the crime scene sketch in a homicide indicates a focus beyond the body and an awareness that the scene itself was important to understanding what had happened, and that this new interest in the relationship between crime and its location and spatial setting represented a significant innovation in how such crimes were reported and written about. We suggest that a detailed study of the ways in which crime scenes were visually illustrated in early-mid nineteenth century newspapers can shed new light on understandings of the cultural history of crime, and print culture at that time, specifically the function and role of crime reporting, and more broadly on the visual presentation of crime and the relationship between law and the visual.