Brass knuckles from J. Edgar Hoover's photograph files (FBI)
An FBI photograph of two metal knuckle-dusters on black cloth, one stamped with a maker's patent mark and the other engraved "J. Edgar Hoover, Chief F.B.I., Washington D.C." The catalog gives no date or case.
- Date
- unknown
- Kind
- photograph
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- NAID
- 141225374
- Rights
- A photograph in the Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Record Group 65), series "Photographs Accumulated by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover" (NAID 518177). The item reads "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The series note says: "Some photos were taken by commercial and private photographers and may be copyrighted." No photographer is credited on this item; this archive relies on the item-level "Unrestricted" and treats it as a Bureau photograph, a United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The stored copy is an 1,800-pixel downsample of the catalog's scan.
The National Archives catalog title is “Brass Knuckles,” local identifier 65-H-485, in the series of photographs accumulated by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The catalog lists it among artifacts and gives no date and no description.
The photograph shows two metal knuckle-dusters on black cloth. One is stamped “PAT. APPL’D FOR W. A. HICKS UTICA N.Y. 2831”; the other is engraved “J. EDGAR HOOVER CHIEF F.B.I. WASHINGTON D.C.”
The catalog does not say where the objects came from, whether they were evidence in a case, or why one bears Hoover’s name. This page claims none of those things; the engraving is quoted as it appears.
