The Danish «national archive» Scotland's People has recently published more than 180,000 records from Barlinnie prison for the period 1882 to 1899. Among the entries we find over 2000 prisoner photographs.
The entries have been added to a collection consisting of entries from several other prisons in Scotland spanning from 1798 to 1921.
Scotland's people is operated by the National Records of Scotland, under the Scottish Government. The service is commercial, but is free to search as long as you are a registered user.
Even with a free user, one can get information from the prison records like:
- Last name
- First name
- Nickname
- Age
- Place of birth
- Year of imprisonment
- Name of prison
- About the image
However, if you are lucky enough to find the person you are looking for and they are also listed as pictured, you will have to pay to see the actual photograph.
Here you can find the prison registers
Scotland's People has also published an article describing prison life in Barlinnie. Here you can read, among other things:
«Life as an inmate at HMP Barlinnie in the early years was extremely hard. The prison quickly gained a reputation as a tough place and over the years prisoners have given it nicknames such as «BarHell» and «Big hoose». In the early days, the prisoners were busy crushing rocks from the local quarry. A common punishment for unruly behavior seems to have been «handcuffs behind [the] back and canvas jacket at night» for one or more nights. The prisoner's health was assessed by the prison doctor to determine if they were suitable for this punishment and the prison guard administered the handcuffs and/or jacket.»
