Fingerprint Booklets

Books made up of smaller booklets of pre-printed forms for collecting examples of the left and right forefingers of individuals. Each form is numbered sequentially and includes the name of the person, and sometimes their address, age, date of birth or the date the fingerprint was made. Either two or three examples of each forefinger print are given.

The blank booklets were sent by Galton to his friends and acquaintances for them to fill in with the fingerprints of their own family and friends and were returned to him when complete. Some booklets are annotated with the name of the person who collected the fingerprints. Galton was particularly interested in collecting fingerprints of family groups.

1903

25 items

Arranged in numerical order from Book 1 - Book 23. Book 14 can be found with the material relating to fingerprints of twins (GALTON/2/9/6/4/1/2)

See also GALTON/2/9/6/10 for correspondence and other material relating to the collection of these fingerprints; particularly the "Schedules for Family Groups" which recorded information such as ages and relationships of the families who were fingerprinted as part of Galton's study. This material may also be related to the bundles of fingerprint cards and index, see GALTON/2/9/6/11/3, which include prints of many members of the same families.

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 for some of the material within this item. Not all material within this item has been digitised.

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.