In 1850, the Pinkerton Detective Agency opened in Chicago with the slogan “We never sleep,” and its symbol was a large wide-open eye.
Pinkerton was very effective and criminals began calling the feared operation “the eye.”
Pinkerton agents were hired to track outlaws such as Jesse James, the Reno brothers, and even Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Raymond Chandler and other fiction writers of the 1930s and 1940s simply embellished the underworld expression by introducing “private eye” as a description for any private investigator.
It was not until the prosperity of the 1920s that the private investigator became a person accessible to the average American.
Related Posts
-
What Does the Evil Eye Mean and Where Did the Evil Eye Come From?
The superstition of the Evil Eye goes back centuries, and can be found in societies throughout the world. Ancient Romans claiming to possess the Evil Eye could be hired to charm enemies. Ancient…
-
Where Did Detective Sherrinford Holmes and Ormand Sacker From the Sherlock Holmes Stories Come From?
When Arthur Conan Doyle began writing mystery novels, he chose one of his medical school instructors, Dr. Joseph Bell, as his sleuth's model and named him Sherrinford Holmes. His assistant, Watson, took his…
-
What Does the Word “Bailiwick” For Private Property Mean and How Did the Term “Bailiff” Originate?
Bailiwick is an old English legal term and is a compound of baile, which is now bailiff, and wic, meaning a farm or dwelling. From the mid-fifteenth century the word meant "under a…
-
Where Did the Term “Gumshoes” For Private Detectives Come From and What Does the Word Mean?
Around the beginning of the twentieth century a popular casual shoe was manufactured with a sole made of gum rubber. They were very quiet and were favored by thieves who used them during…
-
How Did the First Guide Dogs Originate and How Much Does it Cost to Train With a Seeing Eye Dog?
Guide dogs, also known as seeing eye dogs, are dogs trained to lead blind and vision impaired people around obstacles. Although guide dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are partially…
-
What does the expression “all my eye and Betty Martin” mean and Where does it originate?
The expression "all my eye and Betty Martin" means: All humbug; sham; stuff and nonsense; apparent but not real; imaginary. The age, even of the first part of this expression, is unknown. Grose,…
