The Bertillon system that cataloged criminals by their physical measurements, 1894

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In the late nineteenth century, the photography of criminals became as standardized as anthropological photography, largely because of the work of Paris police official Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914). Son of Louis Adolphe Bertillon, a well-known anthropometrician who used statistics to describe humans, Alphonse Bertillon developed a verbal and visual system to describe criminals. His main interest […]