"The mug shot has, by now, become so universal that it’s hard to imagine a criminal justice system without it. But in the mid-19th century, when photography was still a new medium, there was no standardized record-keeping system in place to help police departments identify repeat criminals. Random daguerreotypes and loose photographs laying around unfiled weren’t cutting it — which is why in the early 1880s, French criminologist Alphonse Bertillon introduced the Paris police force to a standardized method that documented mug shots, body measurements, and in some cases, early finger prints."
Read the rest of the Article HERE.
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I got to see some rare Bertillon photos at a conference once, as well as some obscure 19th century crime scene photos (from a private collector, so seldom seen). Interesting stuff.
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