HENRY, Edward.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Classification and Uses of Finger Prints. Third edition, inscribed by the author, "Arthur Forbes from E.R.H". This work offers a practical guide to the Henry Classification System, the standard method of fingerprint identification until the late 20th century. Henry developed the techniques whilst Inspector-General of Police in Bengal; the first edition of this work, published in 1900, was commissioned by the Government of India.Henry (1850-1931) began his career in the Indian Civil Service, where the recipient of this volume, Forbes (1843-1919), also worked. The taking of fingerprints had been common practice in Bengal for over 40 years but had not yet been developed into a practical tool. Between 1896 and 1897, Henry developed a system of classification which allowed fingerprint records to be sorted and searched with ease. He was assisted by Sub-Inspectors Azizul Haque (1872-1935) and Hemchandra Bose (1867-1949) and corresponded with fellow fingerprint pioneer Francis Galton (1822-1911) in the development of his theories. Henry later became head of the Metropolitan Police in London, where he popularized the use of the technique in Britain.

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