Part I: True
Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society , October 2002, page 563 —
“… the study of symmetries of patterns led to… finite geometries….”
– David W. Henderson, Cornell University
This statement may be misleading, if not (see Part II below) actually false. In truth, finite geometries appear to have first arisen from Fano's research on axiom systems. See The Axioms of Projective Geometry by Alfred North Whitehead, Cambridge University Press, 1906, page 13.
Part II: Grid
For the story of how symmetries of patterns later did lead to finite geometries, see the diamond theorem.