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Sir William Herschel
Sir William Herschel, British Administrator in District in India, requires fingerprint and signatures on civil contracts -
Dr. Henry Faulds
Dr. Henry Faulds, a Scottish doctor in Tokyo, Japan publishes article in “Nature” -
Alphonse Bertillion
Alphonse Bertillion, a French anthropologist, devised method of body measurements to produce
a formula used to classify individuals. This formula involves taking the measurements of a persons
body parts, and recording these measurements on a card. This method of classifying and identifying
people became known as the Bertillion System. -
Juan Vucetich
Juan Vucetich, Argentine Police Official, Initiated the fingerprinting of criminals, (First case used was the Rojas
Homicide in 1892, in which the print of a woman who murdered her two sons and cut her own throat in an attempt to
place the blame on another person was found on a door post) -
Sir Francis Galton
Sir Francis Galton, a British Anthropologist and cousin to Charles Darwin, publishes the first book on fingerprints.
In his book, Galton identifies the individuality and uniqueness of fingerprints. The unique characteristics of fingerprints, as
identified by Galton, will officially become known as minutiae, however they are sometimes still referred to as Galton’s
Details. -
IACP
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Establish National Bureau of Criminal Identification, for the
exchange of arrest information -
Sir Edward Henry
Sir Edward Henry, an Inspector General of Police in Bengal, India, develops the first system of classifying
fingerprints. This system of classifying fingerprints. This system of classifying fingerprints was first adopted as the official
system in England, and eventually spread throughout -
The William West – Will West Case
The William West – Will West Case at a Federal Prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, changed the way that people
were classified and identified
When a man named Will West entered the Leavenworth Prison
inmates. His face was photographed, and his Bertillion
measurements were taken. Upon completion of this process, it
was noted that another inmate, known as William West, who was
already incarcerated at Leavenworth, had the same name,
Bertillion measurements, and bore a striking resemblance to Will
West. -
U.S. Military
U.S. Military adopts the use of fingerprints – soon thereafter, police agencies began to adopt the use of
fingerprints -
fingerprint card
The first official fingerprint card was developed
