Bertillon, Alphonse

Manuscript letters. Encloses a calling card of 'Chef de Service d'Identification' at the Palais de Justice.

Particular items:

Letter dated 18 January 1889: Bertillon is glad that Galton found his documents on anthropometry useful.

Letter dated 15 June 1891 mentions Bertillon's book Signes Caractéristiques des Professions Manuelles. See GALTON/2/9/7 for the book itself.

Letter dated 3 July 1896: Bertillon is interested in an article on fingerprinting and goes on to discuss it further.

1888-1896

5 letters and 1 enclosure

Bertillon, Alphonse (1853-1914) chief of criminal identification for the Paris police (from 1880) who developed an identification system known as anthropometry, or the Bertillon system, that came into wide use in France and other countries. (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica)

See also GALTON/2/9/6/13/6 for another letter from Bertillon

The papers are available at UCL Special Collections and Archives subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

A digitised copy is held by the Wellcome Library as part of Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics.

Letter dated 15 June 1891 was returned to UCL Special Collections by UCL Museums & Collections in March 2013, where it had been on display.

The original material is held at UCL Special Collections. This catalogue is held by the Wellcome Library as part of Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics.