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Data (after)Lives: The Persistence of Encoded Identity
Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914)
Identification anthropométrique, instructions signalétiques, Imprimerie administrative, Melun, 1893
Collection of the Frick Fine Arts Library, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Description

In 1893, Bertillon definitively set down his protocol for encoding and measuring the human body in the second edition of his book, Identification anthropométrique: Instructions signalétiques. His main impetus for this highly detailed work was to describe a system of identification based on mathematical principles that was essentially infallible, but he also expressed a desire for his scholarship to contribute to the study of humankind:
 
Is it not astonishing that while there have long existed, under the name of Hippology, special works for the precise description of the forms and appearance of the horse, there has never existed until now, so far as we know, a methodical treatise on the description of the human body [signalement]? (pp. iv)
 
In part to address this scholarly gap, Bertillon produced, alongside his elaborate procedures for measuring the human body, a similarly complete set of rules for its visual description. He studied the color variations of the human iris and gave explicit names to each so that every eye could be precisely described in words and thus used to further differentiate between individuals. The intricate shape of the human ear, which Bertillon argued was enough to uniquely identify every human being if described with enough precision, received particular attention.

Researchers: Alison Langmead and Josh Ellenbogen
 

Related Themes

Quantifying Perception
Bertillon Measuring Equipment

Related Objects

Signaletic Instructions: including the theory and practice of anthropometrical identification. Translated from the latest French edition; edited under the supervision of R.W. McClaughry, Werner Co., Chicago, 1896
Replica of the Bertillon Measurement Apparatus
Mobilier de mensuration, pl. 1
Relevé du signalement anthropométrique
Identification anthropométrique, instructions signalétiques, Imprimerie administrative, Melun, 1893, Pl 25
Identification anthropométrique, instructions signalétiques, Imprimerie administrative, Melun, 1893, Pl 12
Identification anthropométrique, instructions signalétiques, Imprimerie administrative, Melun, 1893, Pl 11
Identification anthropométrique, instructions signalétiques, Imprimerie administrative, Melun, 1893, Pl 4
Identification anthropométrique, instructions signalétiques, Imprimerie administrative, Melun, 1893, Page 162
Untitled Video
Bertillon card - Prisoner #745
Bertillon card - Prisoner #774
Bertillon card - Prisoner #758
Identification anthropométrique, instructions signalétiques, Imprimerie administrative, Melun, 1893, Page 051
Bertillon - Prisoner #3415
Bertillon card - Prisoner #35642
Bertillon card - Prisoner #989
Bertillon card - Prisoner #1919 (card 1)
Bertillon card - Prisoner #1919 (card 2)
Bertillon card - Prisoner #19215 (card 2)
Bertillon card - Prisoner #26522
Bertillon card - Prisoner #26521
Bertillon card - Prisoner #35613 (card 1)
Bertillon card - Prisoner #35613 (card 2)
Bertillon card - Prisoner #1108 (card 1)
Bertillon card - Prisoner #1108 (card 2)
Bertillon card - Prisoner #2161
Bertillon card - Prisoner #1185
Bertillon card - Prisoner #877
Bertillon card - Prisoner #1969
Bertillon card - Prisoner #1846
Bertillon card - Prisoner #1836 (card 1)
Criminal Arrest Ledger, Police Department, Allegheny, PA
Interactive Visualization of Facial Similarity
Studies for Signaletic Instructions
7,105 Faces, in Order

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University of Pittsburgh, Henry Clay Frick Department of History of Art and Architecture
104 Frick Fine Arts Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-648-2400 Fax: 412-648-2792
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