Remembering History: The FBI Fingerprint Factory grew so large during the war that it rapidly outgrew its office space. In 1924 it had employed just 25 workers and had about 800,000 print cards. By 1943, 21,000 employees dealt with 70 million cards. Eventually the factory moved and took up 8,000 square feet of the National Guard Armory. The long rectangles shown here in the armory are rows of card catalogs similar in appearance to those once found in public libraries. (Courtesy of Mary Lou Kerst Moorberg)

The FBI Fingerprint Factory grew so large during the war that it rapidly outgrew its office space. In 1924 it had employed just 25 workers and had about 800,000 print cards. By 1943, 21,000 employees dealt with 70 million cards. Eventually the factory moved and took up 8,000 square feet of the National Guard Armory. The long rectangles shown here in the armory are rows of card catalogs similar in appearance to those once found in public libraries. (Courtesy of Mary Lou Kerst Moorberg)

The FBI Fingerprint Factory grew so large during the war that it rapidly outgrew its office space. In 1924 it had employed just 25 workers and had about 800,000 print cards. By 1943, 21,000 employees dealt with 70 million cards. Eventually the factory moved and took up 8,000 square feet of the National Guard Armory. The long rectangles shown here in the armory are rows of card catalogs similar in appearance to those once found in public libraries. (Courtesy of Mary Lou Kerst Moorberg)