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1792 BCE
Archeologists
Archeologists found fingerprints pressed into clay tablets in Babylon. -
300 BCE
Chinese Historians
Chinese historians found finger and palm prints pressed into clay and wood writing surfaces. -
Western Culture
The earliest records of the study of the human hands in Western culture. -
Dr. Nehemiah
He wrote a paper describing the patterns that he saw in human hands under a microscope. -
Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer
First person to explain that the "pattern of skin ridges is never duplicated in two persons" -
Jan Evangelist Purkyn
Described nine distinct fingerprint patterns including loops, spirals, and double whorls. -
Purkinje
Purkinje published his thesis discussing nine fingerprint patterns but made no mention of the value of fingerprints for personal identification. -
Sir William Herschel
He began collecting fingerprints and noted that the patterns were unique to each person and were not altered by age. -
Thomas Taylor
Thomas Taylor proposed that finger and palm prints left on any object might be used to solve crimes. -
Sr. Francis Galton
He began his observations of fingerprints as a means of identification in the 1880's.