HISTORY

MARCELLO MALPIGHI (1686)

• Anatomy professor at University of Bologna
• Made the first notes about ridges, spirals, and loops of fingerprints
• Did not acknowledge their individualistic significance.

SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1856)

• Used handprints as a way of "signing" contracts in India
• Realized that every person has a unique fingerprint, and that it stays constant throughout one's life.
• Was able to identify the Indian population

DR. HENRY FAULDS (1880)

• Scottish physician
• Discovered that fingerprints grow back in the same pattern, despite skin being removed.
• Realized that fingerprints could be used to personally identify people.

SIR FRANCIS GALTON (1888)

• 1892: Published "Fingerprints"--contained the first fingerprint classification system
• Further emphasized the permanence of a person's fingerprints over their lifetime.
• Identified the minutiae of fingerprints that are still used today.

JUAN VUCETICH (1891)

• Argentinian police official
• Took fingerprints from arrested men
• Founded Dactyloscopy: a fingerprint group and classification system

SIR EDWARD HENRY (1901)

• Developed the Henry Classification System
• Classified the ridge patterns into loops, whorls, and arches.