Anthropometric File of Anarchists

Anthropometric File of Anarchists
Anarchists in the Bertillon file (MET)
Artist	Alphonse Bertillon
Year	1880s-1890
Location	New York City / Paris

The Anthropometric File of Anarchists, or more precisely, the Anthropometric Photographs of Anarchists, is a collection of hundreds of police photographs of anarchists in France. These were taken by Alphonse Bertillon and his department between the late 1880s and the 1890s.

As of 2025, the photographs are divided between the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and the Archives de la préfecture de police de Paris. The entire MET collection is accessible and in the public domain.

These documents are valuable for the history of anarchism, the history of the development of police practices, and are also considered works of art. They figure among the earliest police mugshots in history.

Anthropometric photographs of anarchists

History

In the closing decades of the 19th century, the French police underwent a series of transformations that led to the birth of a specific French forensic police. ^[1] A significant part of this evolution was the arrival of Alphonse Bertillon at the Paris Police Prefecture in 1879. ^[1] Bertillon gradually developed a filing system known as Bertillonage, also called judicial anthropometry. This innovative system was based on taking a specific number of measurements and photographs of individuals, which was intended to improve the identification of suspects or those on file. ^[1]

During this same period, ^{[2] [3]} anarchists were developing the strategy of propaganda of the deed, with some engaging in terrorist actions targeting political or financial figures they deemed responsible for the significant repression they faced. ^{[2] [3]}

The convergence of these two dynamics, among other factors—especially during the period the press dubbed the Ère des attentats (1892-1894)—gave Bertillon increasing authority and credibility to file anarchists using his new methods. ^{[1] [3]} Between 1889 and 1894, hundreds of anarchists in France were documented upon arrest or during police raids, often being released shortly after in the latter case. ^[1] These images are among the earliest police mugshots in history. ^[1]

Current status

As of 2025, the photographs are divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City (417) and the Archives de la préfecture de police de Paris (462) in file Yb 28. ^[4] Since 2017, the MET authorizes the use and dissemination of its works that have fallen into the public domain, which concern the entirety of its anthropometric collection of anarchists. ^{[5] [6]}

List

Following is an alphabetical list of anarchists found in these collections who have a Wikipedia page – their photographs, the anarchist tendencies they can be associated with, and other relevant information about them.

The indication "Arch. pol." means that the photograph exists but is part of the Archives de la préfecture de police de Paris collections and requires express authorization for its publication.

Photograph	Name and first name	Gender	Profession	Notable elements	Date	Age
	Adnet Clotilde	F	embroiderer	illegalist anarchist counterfeiter	7 January 1894	19
	Adnet Jeanne		seamstress	illegalist anarchist	8 January 1894	23
	Bastard Élisée	M	butcher	anarchist from the northern suburbs of Paris/Saint-Denis Close to Philogone Segard and radical Accused of the Trial of the Thirty	1893	22
	Beaulieu Henri		accountant	individualist anarchist notable antimilitarist	25 May 1894	23
	Bertani Orsini		unemployed	illegalist anarchist member of the Ortiz gang Accused of the Trial of the Thirty	18 March 1894	24
Arch. pol.
	Bordes Auguste		waiter	anarchist son of Gustave Auguste Bordes One of the youngest of the collection	March 1894	15
	Brunet Georges		carpenter	syndicalist anarchist Accused at the Trial of the Thirty	4 February 1894	25
Arch. pol.	Caserio Sante		baker	Italian anarchist Responsible for the assassination of Sadi Carnot	28 June 1894	21
Arch. pol.					30 June 1894
	Cazal Antoinette	F	server	Member of the Ortiz gang Accused at the Trial of the Thirty	28 February 1894	31
	Chiericotti Paolo	M	shoemaker	notable illegalist anarchist of Ortiz gang eventually implicated in the Berthe bombing Sentenced to 8 years in deportation to a penal colony at the Trial of the Thirty	25 March 1894	36
	Cler Henri		cabinetmaker	syndicalist anarchist Killed by the French police in 1910	14 March 1894	31
Arch. pol.
	Collot Eugénie	F	upholsterer	syndicalist and feminist anarchist "significant" figure of the period	11 March 1894	36
	Decker Joseph	M	tailor	syndicalist anarchist Member of numerous groups	9 March 1894	46
	Duprat Louis			syndicalist anarchist His wine shop became a gathering place for anarchists in France	27 April 1894	37
	Etiévant Henri		typographer	anarchist and brother of Georges Etiévant support of propaganda by the deed	4 March 1894	32
	Faure Sébastien		journalist	important thinker of anarchism controversial figure due to his child sexual abuse cases	20 February 1894	36
	Fénéon Félix		art critic	notable anarchist of that period Accused at the Trial of the Thirty	May 1894	32
Arch. pol.	François Jean-Pierre		carpenter	individualist and illegalist anarchist implicated in the Véry bombing	1889 ?	33
					5 March 1894	38
	Galau Louis		catwright	notable anarchist of the period, friends with Charles 'Cookie' Simon His seven children join the anarchist movement for the most part	21 August 1893	53
	Grave Jean		journalist	major figure of anarchist communism nicknamed the 'pope of the Mouffetard street'	9 January 1894	38
	Gordon Max		usher	Lithuanian nihilist and anarchist	2 July 1894	39
	Henry Émile		accountant	individualist anarchist responsible for several bombings important figure of the history of terrorism	1890–1894	17–21
Arch. pol.	Jas-Béala Joseph		mechanic	accomplice of Ravachol for the Saint-Germain bombing	26 March 1892	27
	Léger Charles		gardener	arrested in 1894 in possession of explosive materials	4 July 1894	16
	Léveillé Louis		locksmith	victim of the Clichy affair	7 July 1894	36
	Luce Maximilien		painter	Illustrator of Le Père Peinard	6 July 1894	36
	Malatesta Errico		worker	major anarchist communist theorician and activist expulsed from France in August-September 1892	1880s–1890s	26–40
Arch. pol.	Malato Charles		journalist	notable French anarchist of the period	29 April 1890	32
	Mahler Jacob		saddler	German and French anarchist Dies in dubious circumstances while in police custody	10 March 1894	61
	Marie Constant		shoemaker	Communard, chansonnier and notable figure of anarchism in France	2 July 1894	53
Arch. pol.	Meunier Théodule		cabinetmaker	Responsible for the Lobau bombing and the Véry bombing	1892	32
Arch. pol.					Same ?	32 ?
Arch. pol.
	Ortiz Léon		accountant	illegalist anarchist member of the Ortiz gang Sentenced to fifteen years of penal servitude at the Trial of the Thirty Collaborated with French authorities	1894	25
					18 March 1894
Arch. pol.	Pauwels Désiré		tanner	Belgian anarchist close to Émile Henry Responsible for the 20 February bombings and the Madeleine bombing	22 July 1891 ?	27
Arch. pol.					22 July 1891
Arch. pol.
Arch. pol.
	Pelgrom Élise	F	passementerie worker	Belgian illegalist anarchist Linked to the Intransigents of London and Paris	22 February 1893	28
Arch. pol.
Arch. pol.
	Perrare Antoine	M	mechanic	Communard leader who joins the Anti-authoritarian international on its inception One of the first anarcho-communists, linked to Peter Kropotkin and Jean Grave	10 July 1894	53
Arch. pol.	Pini Vittorio		worker	Italian individualist anarchist One of the founders of illegalism	20 June 1889	29
Arch. pol.					Same ?
Arch. pol.
	Pouget Émile		publicist	Close to Louise Michel Organizer of Le Père Peinard Precursor of anarcho-syndicalism	26 April 1894	31
Arch. pol.
	Ravachol François		dyer	One of the most famous French anarchists Responsible for the Saint-Germain and Clichy bombings (Ère des attentats)	27 April 1892	33
	Reclus Paul		engineer	notable anarchist communist Son of anarchist activist Élie Reclus and nephew of Élisée Reclus His wife, Marguerite Wapler, financed the National Assembly bombing	23 December 1893	35
	Segard Émilien		house painter	anarchist from Saint-Denis son of Philogone Segard	1894	18
	Segard Philogone		ropemaker	radical anarchist from the Saint-Denis/northern suburbs of Paris Implicated or in link with several propaganda of the deed attempts or actions Victim of the Clichy affair	23 April 1894	44
	Schouppe Placide		mechanic	notable illegalist anarchist escapes from the penal colony two times, including one with Vittorio Pini (1891)	1889	31
Arch. pol
Arch. pol
Arch. pol
Arch. pol
	Schrader Appoline	F	artist	active in Parisian artistic circles possibly a police informant	24 March 1894	19
Arch. pol.	Soubère Rosalie		Newspaper distributor	Accomplice of Ravachol in the Saint-Germain bombing	26 March 1892	24
	Soubrié François	M	miner	socialist figure before joining anarchism Acquitted at the Trial of the Thirty	4 March 1894	39
	Soubrier Annette	F	poultry seller	illegalist anarchist member of the Ortiz gang Accused at the Trial of the Thirty	25 March 1894	28
	Spannagel Émile	M	locksmith	notable illegalist anarchist founder of the Spannagel gang	7 July 1894	20
	Trucano Victorina	F	hatmaker		19 March 1894	54
	Zanini Maria		seamstress		18 March 1894	28
	Zisly Henri	M	railway worker	individualist anarchist Promoter of Naturian circles	26 February 1894	21
Arch. pol.

References

1. Frappa 2023, p. III-IV.
2. Bouhey 2009, p. 219-220.
3. Schwager 2009, p. 41-55.
4. "État des fonds" [State of the collections](PDF). Archives de la préfecture de police de Paris. February 2025.
5. "6C50 - Fichier des anarchistes". www.eclatdebois.org. Archived from the original on 2024-03-04. Retrieved 2025-07-15.
6. "Le Met de New York autorise l'utilisation de 375.000 images de ses oeuvres". Franceinfo (in French). 2017-02-14. Retrieved 2025-07-15.

Bibliography

• Bouhey, Vivien (2009), Les Anarchistes contre la République[The Anarchists against the Republic] (in French), Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes (PUR)
• Frappa, Amos (2023), Par l'encre et le sang : Histoire de la police scientifique française[By Ink and Blood: A History of French Forensic Science], Paris: A.F.I.T.T
• Schwager, Nicole (2009), "Polizeiliche Identifikationstechniken und Anarchismus in der Schweiz (1888-1904)", Traverse, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 41–55, doi:10.5167/uzh-27333