Trial by Pencil

April 25, 2017 6:59 PM

Rosalie Ritz was a courtroom reporter and artist based out of San Francisco from the 1960s to 1980s. Almost two thousand of her trial sketches are online, including: Angela Davis; Patty Hearst and the Harris Trials (Symbionese Liberation Army); Huey Newton; Daniel Ellsberg; Sara Jane Moore (attempted assasin of Gerald Ford); Sirhan Sirhan; the San Quentin Six; and Dan White.

Alternate portal to the collection and the entire collection listed on one page. She was also an accomplished artist in other genres. WaPo Obituary (2008).

posted by Rumple (3 comments total)

Wow, there's a lot to look through. Terence Hallinan, who was only briefly on the defense team, is on the left side of a drawing of Patti Hearst. (Hallinan was later District Attorney of San Francisco, before being defeated by Kamala Harris in a 2003 election.)
posted by larrybob at 7:13 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is great. Obscure (to me) digitised courtroom artwork from the 60s to 80s. Also: Very Peak Metafilter.
posted by Speculatist at 1:47 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

8/26/71 Courtroom Melee - Soledad Trial, San Francisco. (b&w)
8/23/71 Soledad Brothers Trial - Melee - TAC Squad bursts into Spectator Section and beats Spectators. (color)
Looks like a brutal trial.
posted by larrybob at 11:54 AM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]