History of Fingerprinting

  • Clay Tablet Prints
    1792 BCE

    Clay Tablet Prints

    Ancient cultures used fingerprints as markings. Archaeologists discovered fingerprints pressed into clay tablet contracts
  • Human Hand Patterns

    Human Hand Patterns

    Dr. Nehemiah wrote a paper describing the patterns he saw on human hands under a microscope.
  • Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer

    Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer

    Johann followed Dr. Nehemiah and described that the arrangement of skin ridges is never duplicated in two persons.
  • Sir Francis Galton

    Sir Francis Galton

    He verified the fact that fingerprints never change, he also worked with Sir E. R. Henry, to develop the classification system for fingerprints.
  • Jan Evangelist Purkyn

    Jan Evangelist Purkyn

    Described nine distinct finger patterns, including loops, spirals, circles, and double whorls.
  • Sir William Herschel

    Sir William Herschel

    Collected fingerprints and noted that patterns were unique to each person and were not altered by age.
  • Alphonse Bertillon

    Alphonse Bertillon

    Assistant clerk in the police office, he created a way to identify criminals.
  • Ivan (Juan) Vucetich

    Ivan (Juan) Vucetich

    He improved fingerprint collection and began to note measurements on the identification cards on all arrested persons. He also added the collection of all 10 fingerprint impressions.
  • Sir Edmund Richard Henry

    Sir Edmund Richard Henry

    Created an organization system for fingerprints of a certain type for each finger. Each fingerprint card in the system was imprinted with all ten fingerprints of a person and marked with individual characteristics called a ten card.
  • Army

    Army

    The U.S. Army started using fingerprints in order to identify people.