Fingerprints

             2. 1856 - Sir William Hershel.
             a. The English first started using fingerprints in 1858, but were first used on native contracts.
             b. They believed that the personal contact made the contract more binding. .
             c. As his collection grew, he realized that it may be possible to use fingerprints to prove or disprove identity.
             3. 1882 - Gilbert Thompson.
             a. Thompson used his own fingerprints on a document to try to prevent forgery.
             b. This is the first known use of fingerprints in the United States.
             4. 1888 - Sir Francis Galton.
             a. Galton, a British anthropologist, began his research on fingerprints as a mean of identification in the 1880's.
             b. His well-known book, Fingerprints, included the first fingerprint classification system, as well as establishing individuality and permanence of fingerprints. .
             c. When his primary interest in determining heredity and racial background from fingerprints failed, we came upon the fact that they did not change over the course of a lifetime and no two people possessed the same.
             d. He also found the characteristics that fingerprints can be classified, called minutia, still in use today (Galton's Details). .
             5. 1891 - Juan Vucetich.
             a. Vucetich was an Argentine Police Official that began the first fingerprint files based on Galton's pattern types. .
             b. In 1892, he made the first fingerprint identification from a bloody fingerprint left on a doorpost. .
             6. 1901.
             a. The method of fingerprints for criminal identification was introduced to England. .
             b. Sir Edward Richard Henry revised Galton's observations, and a new classification system was created. .
             c. The Henry Classification System is still used today in most English speaking countries. .
             7. 1902-1903.
             a. The New York Civil Service Commission was the first to use a systematic use of fingerprints in the United States in 1902.
             b. The first systematic use of fingerprints for criminals in the United States was by the New York State Prison in 1903.
             8. 1918 - Edmond Locard.