Western State Penitentiary, Prison Population Records, Bertillon Registration Books, Volumes A-C, circa 1888-1895, This Digital Object is provided in a collection that is included in POWER LIBRARY: Pennsylvania Photos and Documents, which is funded by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries of Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania Department of Education., Arranged chronologically by inmate number. Bertillon books for inmates incarcerated at the Western State Penitentiary. Information provided is inmate number, name of inmate, length and width of head, length of left middle finger, length of left foot, length of left forearm, height, width of trunk, length of outstretched arms, length of right ear, and length of left little finger. While working with offenders detained in Paris’s Palais de Justice in 1882, Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914) used statistical methods to devise a system of bodily measurement intended to identify criminal characteristics. Bertillon’s methods involved photographing each subject looking directly at the camera and in profile with the camera centered on the right ear. The subject’s height, length of one foot, arm, and index finger were also recorded. By the 1890s, Bertillon also recognized that fingerprints provided a means for unique identification of individuals. Though many scientists, including Francis Galton, criticized on statistical grounds Bertillon’s system of measuring the hands, head, torso, face and limbs as a method of identifying criminal characteristics, the records generated nonetheless proved useful for identifying and keeping track of specific individuals convicted of crimes.
