Measurement of Left Middle Finger

Alphonse Bertillon

ca. 1893 · Albumen silver prints · Photographs

Born into a distinguished family of scientists and statisticians, Bertillon began his career as a clerk in the Identification Bureau of the Paris Prefecture of Police in 1879. Tasked with maintaining reliable police records of offenders, he developed the first modern system of criminal identification. The system, which became known as Bertillonage, had three components: anthropometric measurement, precise verbal description of the prisoner’s physical characteristics, and standardized photographs of the face. A prisoner being "Bertillonaged" was first subjected to eleven different anthropometric measurements taken with specially designed calipers, gauges, and rulers. To ensure that the results were accurate and consistent, Bertillon meticulously choreographed the movements and gestures of both prisoner and police clerk. These photographs show Bertillon himself demonstrating his technique for measuring the middle finger.

Artist

Alphonse Bertillon

Date

ca. 1893

Medium

Albumen silver prints

Department

Photographs

Credit line

The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2016