Curator's Corner: The History of Fingerprinting

August 2025 Edition

For this month's Curator’s Corner, we will be exploring the fascinating history of fingerprinting. The introduction of fingerprinting as a means of identifying criminals was a revolution in forensics with Bradford playing a central role in its story.

At crime scenes, fingerprints can be found in different ways: some are visible to the naked eye, while others need to be developed using powders, chemicals, or special light sources. Once revealed, prints are photographed, lifted with tape or gel, and preserved as evidence before being compared against known records. This careful process, still recognisable today, began in the early 20th century and proved crucial in the 1904 Bradford case, the first successful use of fingerprint evidence in court outside London.^[1]

Information document (above & below) issued by West Yorkshire Police entitled 'Instructions for taking elimination prints'. This document is in the museum's collection, and was donation by Pannal Ash training centre.

Before fingerprinting, police forces relied on a system called Bertillonage, developed in France in the late 19th century by Alphonse Bertillon. Officers measured and recorded suspects’ heads, arms, and torsos, believing the dimensions of the body were unique and would help to more easily identify repeat offenders.^[2] Yet errors were common, and gradually the system was replaced by something better.

In the 1890s, scientists Sir Francis Galton and Sir Edward Henry advanced the use of fingerprints for identification. Unlike measurements, fingerprints were simple, permanent, and unique to every individual.^[3] Galton published a detailed statistical model of fingerprint analysis and identification in 1892, calculating that the chance of a ‘false positive’ was about 1 in 64 billion.^[4]

In 1904, Bradford became the first city outside of London to use fingerprints successfully in a criminal trial. The case involved a theft, and the suspect’s fingerprints were matched and taken into custody, providing clear evidence. The court accepted the science, and the thief was convicted. It was a landmark moment: proof that this new forensic method could hold up in court, not just in theory.  This was a bold step. Fingerprinting was still considered experimental in some quarters, and its use in Bradford helped pave the way for its wider acceptance across Britain and the world.

By the First World War, fingerprinting had become standard practice in police forces across the UK. It was used not only to solve crimes but also to identify missing persons, military casualties, and later, to support immigration and identity checks. Bradford’s 1905 case stands as an important milestone in that journey.

The Bradford Police had a history of innovation in policing, being the first UK force to use court photography and taped recorded evidence.^[5]

Visit the gallery to learn more about this fascinating evolution in policing and to see the fingerprints used in the first successful criminal trial outside of London.

^[1] ‘Fingerprint.’ Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation, 13 Aug 2025.

^[2] ‘History of Anthropometry.’ Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 June 2025.

^[3] ‘Fingerprint’, Wikipedia.

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] McBride, Jake. ‘Policing History.’ Points of Light, 7 April 2016.