Marquis of Queensberry’s calling card for Oscar Wilde, 1895. The message on this card is believed to read: ‘For Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite’ [sodomite].

A fragment of an account for many yards’ worth of detailed embroidery to be added by to Henry VIII’s already extravagant clothes.

A fake passport for Hitler made by the Special Operation Executive forgery section.

MEPO 2/8449 (3) – Standard response from Scotland Yard to queries asking if Sherlock Holmes is real, 1909.

MEPO 2/8449 (1) – Letter from the Secretary of Odessa asking whether Sherlock Holmes is real, 1912. One of the many letters from across the globe sent to Scotland Yard.

Telegram to Gwilym Lloyd-George, Home Secretary, from Frank Owen MP sent the day before the execution of Ruth Ellis, asking to show mercy and stop the hanging.

Photo from a newspaper clipping of Ruth Ellis outside the Central Criminal Court, 1955.

Extract from the Stratton Brothers case: the first Scotland Yard case to use fingerprints as evidence for a conviction.