Criminal Posing Chair, c 1880
- PART OF:
- The Kodak Museum Collection
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Criminal photographic studio posing chair. Wooden with metal head support at the back. Manufactured in Germany, about 1880.
This chair was designed to position people suspected of committing a crime, when they were photographed using a system called ‘Bertillonage’.
Alphonse Bertillon worked for the Paris Police in the 1880s. His job was to maintain files issued for each person charged with an offence. He quickly realized that these records were poorly arranged. It was difficult, if not impossible, to use the existing filing system to identify a repeat offender. This motivated Bertillon to develop his own system. ‘Bertillonage’ involved taking photographs of every sitter’s face from the side and the front and recording detailed descriptions of physical characteristics, which could be arranged using biometric data.
The chair was used to position people upright, so that an accurate portrait could be taken.
Details
- Category:
- Photographic Technology
- Collection:
- Kodak Collection
- Object Number:
- 1990-5036/8600
- Materials:
- wood (unidentified) and steel (metal)
- Measurements:
-
chair only: 925 mm x 248 mm x 330 mm,
overall (with head support at lowest point): 970 mm x 248 mm x 330 mm, 6.9 kg
- type:
- chair, posing chair and photographic studio equipment
- credit:
- The Kodak Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford
