Henry Classification System

Developed by Hem Chandra Bose,[1] Qazi Azizul Haque[2] and Sir Edward Henry in the late 19th century for criminal investigations in British India,[3] it was the basis of modern-day AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) classification methods up until the 1990s.

Dr. Henry Faulds and Sir Francis Galton did not engage in much correspondence, but in the following decade, they devised very similar fingerprint classification systems.

In 1892, Sir Francis Galton published his highly influential book, Finger Prints in which he described his classification system that include three main fingerprint patterns – loops, whorls and arches.

Two years later, Sir Edward Henry, Inspector General of the Bengal Police in India became interested in the use of fingerprints for the use of criminal identification.

Influenced by Galton's Finger Prints, the men corresponded regularly in 1894; and in January 1896, Henry ordered the Bengali Police to collect prisoners’ fingerprints in addition to their anthropometric measurements.

Also in 1900, Henry was sent to Natal, South Africa to assist in the reorganization of the local police force and establish a fingerprint bureau.

His efforts in South Africa were highly successful; and in 1901 Sir Edward Henry returned to Britain and was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Up until the mid-1990s, it was not unusual for a state or city to continue to maintain its physical file of Henry-sorted fingerprint cards just in case a disaster occurred in the IAFIS.

IAFIS began to classify fingerprints according to the distance between the core and delta, minutiae locations, and pattern type, the latter being based on the Henry Classification System.

Presently, there are some forensic AVIS solutions (e.g. state and local) that still employ a Henry Classification System based manual fingerprint filing.