Followers of the Library of Congress’s Flickr Commons uploads from the Bain Collection know that the news of the 1910s can look very familiar – the same themes turn up in our newspapers today. Crimes, scandals, elections, protests, inventions, sports, performers on tour. But occasionally, a story stands out as unusual, for the 1910s or any other decade. Take the case of Father Hans Schmidt, the only Roman Catholic priest ever executed as a criminal in the US. You can certainly find some awfully sordid tales about clergy misdeeds and the church hierarchy in the news today, but Schmidt’s is still a unique and chilling story, told across the photos in Flickr Commons.
Hans B. Schmidt (TOC)
Hans B. Schmidt was born in Germany in 1881, and trained at a seminary in Mainz, where he was ordained as a priest in 1904. Perhaps in response to the growing demand for Catholic priests in the US, or perhaps because he had been charged with forgery in 1905 and showed other signs of instability, Schmidt was assigned to a parish in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1908. Soon he was transferred again, and finally landed in New York City, where he served at St. Boniface Church. The housekeeper at the rectory there was Anna Aumüller, an Austrian immigrant. Here’s Anna:
Anna Aumueller (LOC)
Schmidt and Aumüller struck up a romantic relationship; it continued even after Schmidt was transferred again, to a parish uptown. Apparently Schmidt even performed a secret marriage ceremony to assure Aumüller that their activities were acceptable. But when 21-year-old Anna became pregnant in 1913, Schmidt killed her in her sleep, and disposed of her body in pieces, in a pillowcase tossed in the Hudson River. It didn’t take long for the evidence to come to light, and for Schmidt to confess to the murder of Anna Aumüller (turns out the priest was a talker, so there are pages and pages of his own ruminations about the crime). The trial was, unsurprisingly, a media event.
Bertha Zech (LOC), a servant, one of the witnesses at Schmidt's trial
Schmidt claimed insanity at his first trial; that resulted in a hung jury. In a second trial, Schmidt was convicted of first degree murder, and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1916, at Sing Sing Prison. But wait, there was even more to the tale: Schmidt was also involved in a counterfeiting scheme, operating out of an apartment he rented. And, in retrospect, he was suspected of at least one other murder (the body of a child was found buried in the basement of his Louisville church). He also impersonated a physician throughout his life, and collected medical equipment.
Want to dig further into this true crime story? Check out Mark Gado’s Killer Priest: The Crimes, Trial, and Execution of Father Hans Schmidt (Praeger 2006), which is based on the trial transcripts and press coverage of the story.
| The National Maritime Museum’s recent uploads take a mammalian turn: is there a kitten on this ship? |  The ship’s cats, HMS ‘Hawkins’ |
| The Library of Congress’s Sneak Preview! set provides a jumping-off spot to several different aspects of the LOC’s redesigned Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, at its new address: www.loc.gov/pictures |  For president, Abram Lincoln. For vice president, Hannibal Hamlin |
| The National Library of Wales’s additions to the Geoff Charles collection include fairs, carnivals, and Eistedfodds. (Can anyone identify this tuba player?) |  National Eisteddfod of Wales 1956, Aberdare |
| The recent explorations of the Swedish National Heritage Board take us as far as Italy and Estonia. |  Ruhnu Old Church St. Magdalene, island of Ruhnu, Estonia |
| The Brooklyn Museum adds to its photographs of Italian Cathedrals. |  Altamura, Italy |
| The Bibliothèque de Toulouse focuses again on Cornusson – on what was “antique” already in 1908. |  Cabane antique, Cornusson, septembre 1908 |
| From the Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, beautiful lines of Lisbon’s architecture. |  Praça Francisco Sá Carneiro, Lisboa, Portugal |
| The Smithsonian’s Women in Science month comes to an end, leaving a rich collection of images in the Commons. |  Gene Tunney (1897-1978) and science fair participants, September 24, 1940 |
| LSE Library has added more staff portraits from the 1970s-90s to its Commons collection. Did you study at the London School of Economics? Find the staff, faculty, visitors, and fellow students you remember, and tell us about them! |  Donald Cameron Watt, c1980 |
| Oregon State University rushes into spring with rushing waters and steadfast stones. |  Waterfall at Hug Point |
| The Galt Museum & Archives have released a set from Lethbridge photographer William Fruet, “the school photographer,” most of whose photographs turn out to be not what he was known for. |  A discussion at the Ladies and Escorts entrance of the York Hotel |
| Do you remember that Science Fair, and Science Talent Search? The Smithsonian does! And don’t miss what’s new in the Women in Science set. |  Taimi Toffer Anderson (1937- ), 1956 |
| Our tour of Lisbon continues, as the Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian takes us to the Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira. And how will we get there? By train! |  Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira, Lisboa, Portugal |
| The Powerhouse Museum introduces the Bob Lucas Archive, illustrating “the donor’s life and career in cinema exhibition from the mid 1920s to the late 1980s and offer a highly detailed and personal insight into the activities of a chief technical officer of a premier cinema chain.” |  R.J. (Bob) Lucas and unidentified woman looking at a Centrex projector, 1940-1949 |
| There’s more regional “colour” from the National Library of Wales‘ Geoff Charles collection … |  Double wedding at Llanrhaeadr – Agnes Della Morris to Mr D Noseworthy and Joan Brown to Mr F Telling |
| … and more fishy stories from the State Library and Archives of Florida. |  Debbie Waterman and Peggy Stephens happily display their tripletail catch off Sanibel Island: Lee County, Florida |
| The Swedish National Heritage Board travels to Brittany – it thinks. Can you help? |  Building in unidentified town, France |
| The Brooklyn Museumis back overseas, in Italian Cathedrals. |  Cathedral, Conversano, Italy. |
| The Library of Congress’s Friday Bain upload has baseball, a bull, and … fusion floats? |  Fusion Floats |
And of course, don’t miss the most recent Commons institution: The National Archives UK!
| George Eastman House is back, with 126 daguerreotypes from the Donald Weber Collection. |  Portrait of two men (c. 1860) |
| For Women’s History Month, the Smithsonian celebrates more women in science. |  Ire`ne Joliot-Curie (1897-1956), 1921 |
| In the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day, the Library of Congress has added Ireland to its travel photochroms on Flickr. |  [Menawn Cliffs, Achill. County Mayo, Ireland] |
| The University of Washington has added a large set of photographs from the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. |  Arctic Brotherhood Building presentation ceremony |
| Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian hasgone fishing! |  Recolha de redes de pesca, Portugal |
| The Powerhouse Museum has made additions to the Roussel archive set in its Commons collection. |  Close-up of part of advertising sign on a wall advertising Tooth’s K B Lager, 1920 – 1929 |
![[Sackville Street and O'Connell Bridge, Dublin. County Dublin, Ireland] (LOC)](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4427428828_e6a20da67b_m.jpg) 1890s: Library of Congress |
 2010: shammael |
| THEN | NOW |
Find many more in the Flickr Commons group Then & Now topic for the Library of Congress’s new views-of-Ireland photochrom upload – and watch the Flickr blog for more! In Ireland today and feel like going out to shoot your own, like shammael did? We’d love to see them!
| Nationaal Archief, for International Women’s Day, released a housekeeping set – photos joyful and serious of women’s and men’s everyday routine. |  Wasgoed wordt gemangeld / Laundry is being passed through the mangle |
| The DC Public Library has released a large group of photos by E.B. Thomson, including much in color. |  In the White House |
| The Library of Congress’s Friday Bain Collection uploads includes athletes, men of business and politics, royalty, celebrities, battle sites … and a mine disaster in Cardiff, Wales. |  Cardiff mine disaster |
| The National Maritime Museum has new photographs from the Portlands. |  London Lighterman |
The Commons provides a wealth of photos of the half of the world being celebrated today, International Women’s Day — every one of them uncommon and important in her own way.
| Wilhelmina Drucker, women’s rights pioneer, is portrayed by Truus Claes on the occasion of her seventieth birthday (1917). |  Nationaal Archief |
| Gwyneth Richards, the only girl in the YFC taking part in sheep shearing competitions in Wales (1944). |  National Library of Wales |
| Eileen Power, Professor of Economic History from 1931 to 1940, London School of Economics (1930s). |  LSE Library |
| Co-eds with hoes: The county experimental hop yard recruited Oregon State College coeds for a quick job of hoeing (1944). |  Oregon State University Archives |
| An unnamed 14-year-old striker, actress and political activist Fola La Follette, and prostitute-turned reformer Rose Livingston (1913). |  Library of Congress |
| Rita Trudget (or Trudgett), wicket keeper, in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia (1930s). |  State Library of New South Wales |
 Field Museum Library |
 U.S. National Archives |
 U.S. National Archives |
 New York Public Library |
This one’s for you, Shelley!
| The Nancy Grey with a whale, Norway. |  Library of Congress |
| A whale in Sydney Harbour. |  State Library of New South Wales |
| Model of a whale. |  Smithsonian Institution |
| Posing on whale bones. |  State Library and Archives of Florida |
| Stranded blackfish whales. |  National Library of New Zealand |
| Whaling / Walvisvaart |  Nationaal Archief |
| A sperm whale jawbone. |  Nantucket Historical Association |
| A large whale skeleton. |  Field Museum |
| Whale-back at pier. |  Brooklyn Museum |