PRESENTATION COPY Classification and Uses of Finger Prints

Green cloth, near very good, inscribed on the first (browned) flyleaf ‘Major Arthur Griffiths from the writer. Feb.: 1905’. Errata slip bound in ahead of the title page and ‘Supplied for the Public Servive’ stamped on the title. A comprehensive work complete with plates demonstrating Henry’s system for identifying the arches, loops, whorls and composite features that would trap future criminals.

The Henry Classification System was to find worldwide acceptance from 1899. In 1897 a commission was established to compare Anthropometry to the Henry Classification System. As the results were overwhelmingly in favor of fingerprints, fingerprinting was introduced to British India by the Governor General, and in 1900, replaced Anthropometry. Also in 1900, Henry was sent to Natal, South Africa to assist in the reorganization of the local police force and establish a fingerprint bureau. His efforts in South Africa were highly successful; and in 1901 Sir Edward Henry returned to Britain and was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). In the same year, the first UK fingerprint bureau was established at Scotland Yard.