Fingerprint Cameras and Kits

2014.4.1 – The Jackson Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation used fingerprint cameras and kits like this one in investigations throughout the state. After closing the office in the 1940s, the FBI reopened it in July 1964, during the height of Freedom Summer to handle investigations into civil rights cases. The FBI was also heavily involved in the investigation into the disappearance and murder of the three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. This kit is displayed in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in the exhibit discussing the murders of these men. It was donated by the FBI.