Exhibition Images

^ Return to Exhibition Images
Previous Images (disabled)
Exposition display
New York City Crime Scene, 1914-1918
New York City crime scene, 1914-1918
Mensuration de la coudée [Measurement of the cubit (from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow)]
Bertillon's Filing System
Jan Evangelista Purkinje, Commentatio de examine physiologico organi visus et systematis cutanei [Commentary on the Physiological Examination of the Visual Organs and the Cutaneous System (the Skin)], Bratislava, 1823
Fingerprinting instructions, about 1900
Frederick Kuhne, The Finger Print Instructor…Based upon the Sir E. R. Henry System of Classifying and Filing…, New York, 1940
Taking fingerprints, 1940
Next Images
Jan Evangelista Purkinje, Commentatio de examine physiologico organi visus et systematis cutanei [Commentary on the Physiological Examination of the Visual Organs and the Cutaneous System (the Skin)], Bratislava, 1823
Image 6 of 20

Technologies of Surveillance

Jan Evangelista Purkinje, Commentatio de examine physiologico organi visus et systematis cutanei [Commentary on the Physiological Examination of the Visual Organs and the Cutaneous System (the Skin)], Bratislava, 1823
Purkinje was the first researcher to study the papillary ridges common to human and simian hands. He found nine distinctive patterns, which he described in this first medical treatise on the subject. His work inspired Francis Galton, in the late 19th century, to try to use Purkinje's patterns as the basis of a fingerprint classification system that could identify specific individuals.
National Library of Medicine