I discovered this drawing in the Library of Congress. It’s a police sketch of a Confederate spy. It’s a little earlier than our usual timeframe but I thought an exception was in order.
It’s close to one of my favorite areas: mugshots! But police sketches have an added layer of creepiness, at least for me. I suppose because the sketches don’t look exactly human. I once heard a policeman say the idea behind a police sketch was to capture a person’s essence rather than to make it look exactly like the person. And often a police sketch exudes evil.
I wouldn’t say that is the case with this particular picture though.
If the sketch captured his essence, then my guess is his essence was… debonair? What do you say?
old spirituals 
I often wonder how the sketch of an “Outlaw” on a Wanted Poster in the 1800s was used to identified anyone with great clarity and certainty, unless there was a distinct feature that made the individual very identifiable. Often the poster included descriptors to help identify the individual. Frankly, this rendition of the wanted “spy” reminds me of a high school classmate.
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It’s amazing that anyone is recognized by a police sketch. They so rarely look like the person they catch. You might be interested in this method of identifying criminals and missing persons. https://snapshot.parabon-nanolabs.com/phenotyping
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I would call him slick looking.
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A very apt description!
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That curly moustache is dashing!
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Indeed! 😉
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