ABSTRACT
The passport was the first worldwide personal identification document created in the late 1800s as a formal means of introduction at international borders. One method for nations to protect themselves is to know who enters their country and to keep out unwanted individuals. The passport replaced “Letters of Introduction” and “Calling Cards” that a traveler originally offered to border guards. Whereas only a few countries actually offered their citizens passports before 1900, with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Great Britain made passports mandatory for any traveler entering the UK, and more importantly, the passport must have a photograph of the owner as a means to confirm “they are who they say they are.”
