The American Society of Questioned Document Examiners is the world's oldest

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

dedicated to the

forensic science Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal ...

questioned document examination In forensic science, questioned document examination (QDE) is the examination of documents potentially disputed in a court of law. Its primary purpose is to provide evidence about a suspicious or questionable document using scientific processes a ...

with 144 members worldwide. The current president is Samiah Ibrahim. The society publishes the '' Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners'' twice a year.

Membership

Membership in the society is open to any practising questioned document examiner who meets the criteria for membership according to the by-laws. There are eight classes of membership in the society: Regular Members, Provisional Members, Associate Members, Affiliate Members, Corresponding Members, Life Members, Life Corresponding Members, and Honorary Members. Examiners from the United States or Canada are eligible to become Regular members while examiners from other countries are considered to be Corresponding members.

History

In 1913,

Albert S. Osborn Albert Sherman Osborn is considered the father of the science of questioned document examination in North America. His seminal book ''Questioned Documents'' was first published in 1910 and later heavily revised as a second edition in 1929. Oth ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

invited Elbridge Stein of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

to discuss questioned document examination issues beginning the earliest days of the society. J. Fordyce Wood of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, J. Frank Shearman of

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

, and John J. Lomax of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, were invited in the years immediately following. John F. Tyrrell of Milwaukee, WI, began attending early meetings and Albert D. Osborn, the son of Albert S. Osborn, attended in 1919 upon returning from service overseas during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Herbert J. Walter of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, was later invited in 1926 and within the next two years, Edwin H. Fearon of Pittsburgh, PA, Harry E. Cassidy of Richmond, MI, and Scott E. Leslie of Cleveland, OH, joined the group. James Clark Sellers of Los Angeles, CA was invited and attended the 1930 meeting. At that meeting, Rafael Fernandez Ruenes of Havana, Cuba, also attended. In 1931, John L. Harris of Los Angeles, CA was asked to join. In the meantime, George Walter (son of Herbert J. Walter) became a member. Elwin C. Leslie (son of Scott E. Leslie) attended and participated in the 1939 meeting. George J. Lacy, Houston, TX, was invited and first attended in 1942 as did, Warren T. Johnson. Other names have been relegated to obscurity because of a lack of interest or inability to participate in the rigorous contributory program. Membership was entirely by invitation and the organization remained informal up until this time. Its meetings were completely educational in scope and annual attendance, as well as full participation in the program, were a requirement for subsequent invitation. On September 2, 1942, it was decided to formalize the organization and it became known as ''The American Society of Questioned Document Examiners'', its current name.

Presidents

The following persons have been presidents of the society:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:American Society Of Questioned Document Examiners Questioned document examination Organizations established in 1942 Forensics organizations Organizations based in Long Beach, California Professional associations based in the United States Forensic science journals 1942 establishments in the United States