Today, almost everything the FBI does is digital. However, decades ago, the bureau looked a lot different — after all, there had to be a facility to store all of that information, evidence, and most importantly, fingerprints. The collection and storage of fingerprints took a massive leap, quite quickly. For example, in 1920, the FBI was only employing about 25 people to classify and organize print cards (about 800,000 of them), but by 1943, they had 20,000 employees sorting through 70 million. In fact, the bureau got overwhelmed with all of the archives, so they moved it into an 8,000 square foot facility in Washington, D.C. Ladies and gentlemen: The Fingerprint Factory.
