History
Courtroom sketches in the United States date back as far as the Salem Witch Trials during the 17th century. Courtroom sketch artists were present for the trial of abolitionist John Brown. By the mid-1800s there were well-known court artists and printmakers such as George Caleb Bingham and David G. Blyth. These sketches were reproduced as engravings in the print publications of the era, long before photography was a practical option for courtroom news coverage. Mass-publication of news photographs became more widespread in the 1950s, but courts were reluctant to allow either cameras or sketch artists in courtrooms since they were viewed as a distraction. Artist Ida Libby Dengrove protested these restrictions and gradually courtrooms began allowing sketch artists to work while seated in the public gallery during trials.
Cameras were first permitted in courtrooms in the United States in the mid-1980s. Since then, demand for courtroom sketches has declined. They are still used in some jurisdictions however, when cameras are not permitted inside courtrooms.
Read more about this topic: Courtroom Sketch
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The history of medicine is the history of the unusual.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll)