Twenty-four original criminal identification cards spanning roughly 1920 through 1953 form this archive, drawn from the Ohio State Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, the Binghamton New York Department of Police Bureau of Identification, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and the Pennsylvania State Police. Each record pairs a gelatin silver mug shot, front and profile views, with a printed identification form bearing Bertillon measurements, physical descriptions, charge notations, criminal history entries, and the prisoner's own signature. The issuing agencies are named on each card, and corresponding fingerprint cards survive for most subjects, with full ten-print grids, classification notations, and ink impressions signed by the recording officer.

Named subjects include Joe Garcia, Jack Tait, Theo Duncan, Tom Allen, Sam Dennis, Arthur Roberts, Kenneth F. Herring, Walter D. Warrick, James McCune, Raymond Joseph Miller, Victor C. Cantwell, Clifford H. Brady, Howard C. King, William L. Leonard, Florence M. Lewis, Harry L. Monk, Dewey Burkhart, Benton Wilson Seaman Jr., Charles Rosman Halley, and George Harrison Strong, among others. Charges across the group range from larceny, house breaking, forgery, and auto theft to disorderly conduct, carrying a concealed weapon, and desertion from the U.S. Army. One card, for Florence M. Lewis, is among the comparatively rare female subjects in period municipal arrest archives.

Taken together the cards document law enforcement record-keeping practices across three decades, capturing the transition from Bertillon anthropometric measurement systems toward standardized fingerprint classification, with individual cards reflecting the procedural forms of at least five separate jurisdictions.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer