History of Fingerprinting

There are records of fingerprints being taken many centuries ago, although they weren't nearly as sophisticated as they are today.

The ancient Babylonians pressed the tips of their fingertips into clay to record business transactions. The Chinese used ink-on-paper finger impressions for business and to help identify their children B.C.

3rd Century B.C. The Chinese used ink-on-paper finger impressions for business and to help identify their children.

Scottish doctor Henry Faulds was working in Japan when he discovered fingerprints left by artists on ancient pieces of clay. This finding inspired him to begin investigating fingerprints. In 1880, Faulds wrote to his cousin, the naturalist Charles Darwin, and asked for help with developing a fingerprint classification system. Darwin declined, but forwarded the letter to his cousin, Sir Francis Galton.

The Galton-Henry system of fingerprint classification, published in June 1900, was officially introduced in Scotland in 1901 and quickly became the basis for its criminal-identification records. The system was adopted immediately by law- enforcement agencies in the English-speaking countries of the world and is now the most widely used method of fingerprint classification.

1990s - AFIS, or Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems, begin widespread use around the country. This computerized system of storing and cross-referencing criminal fingerprint records would eventually become capable of searching millions of fingerprint files in minutes, revolutionizing law enforcement efforts.

The FBI phases out the use of paper fingerprint cards with their new Integrated AFIS site at Clarksburg, West Virginia. AFIS will starts with individual computerized fingerprint records for approximately 33 million criminals, while the outdated paper cards for the civil files are kept at a facility in Fairmont, West Virginia.