Most HR Departments wouldn't consider a public library's website to be Not Safe For Work (NSFW), but we can guarantee you that there are dozens of pictures in our Digital Collections that you would not want to be caught viewing at your desk.
A question worth asking is, "Why have these items in the collection at all?"
The bulk of our NSFW photos fall, broadly, into a category that most of us would refer to as, "true crime." These photos portray crime scenes that wouldn't pass muster at today's daily newspapers, but were a staple of early and mid-20th Century print media. The photo at top of this posting is a rather tame example of this genre depicting the emotional toll of a Denver homicide.
One can argue that these pictures are exploitative and, in many ways, that's true. Newspapers of that era definitely lived by, "If it bleeds, it leads," and had no problems running the bloodiest photos they could find. Many of our goriest pictures were done by some of Denver's best-known photographers, such as Harry Rhoads.
Another group of our more graphic materials presents the victims of massacres such as Wounded Knee and Ludlow. This group also includes photos of executions, both judicial and extrajudicial. These photos bear mute witness to historical events and provide an invaluable tool for researchers.
The informational value of these group is unassailable and we consider it to be our responsibility to make such materials available to researchers, no matter how difficult they are to view.
So the next time you're browsing through our Digital Collections don't be shocked if you run across one of our more provocative photos. Remember, it's there for a reason.
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