# Fingerprint kit, 1930s (FBI artifact)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-artifact-fingerprint-kit-1930s/

FBI photograph of a leather fingerprint kit the Bureau dates to the 1930s, with a magnifier, brushes, vials of powder and chemicals, a probe, a pad of paper and a drop-down metal plate for spreading ink.

The FBI lists the kit's contents as a magnifier, brushes, vials for fingerprint powder and other chemicals, a bottle labeled "fixatif," a probe, a pad of paper, and a drop-down metal plate for spreading ink. The page, an Artifact of the Month for October 2016, dates the kit to the 1930s.

The kit is generic Bureau equipment. The FBI page does not tie it to a named case, and this page does not either. It belongs to the same decade as the cases elsewhere in this section.

**Object:** Leather fingerprint kit with contents  
**Maker:** not stated  
**Date:** 1930s  
**Provenance:** held by the FBI  
**Appears in:** FBI, Artifact of the Month, October 2016

## Sources

- FBI, History: Artifacts: https://www.fbi.gov/history/artifacts/fingerprint-kit