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"The Douglass patent artificial limbs."
Douglass' advertising pamphlet for his artificial limbs makes a point that, unlike the Salem leg, "these limbs have never been dependent upon the Government for their support, but are thoroughly established on the real and intrinsic merits of the…
Right scapula, showing a well-defined circular rifle ball perforation
This scapula was found or removed from an unidentified soldier injured on a Virginia battlefield in 1863.
Inscription: "984 12-3 Civil War Gettysburg" written on the underside of the base in pencil; Hand written label "984. Gun Shot Fracture."…
Inscription: "984 12-3 Civil War Gettysburg" written on the underside of the base in pencil; Hand written label "984. Gun Shot Fracture."…
Portions of humerus removed for an ununited fracture after gunshot wound
Case history:From an unidentified soldier whose arm was shattered by gunshot in mid-April 1862. Immediately after the injury fragments were removed from the arm, the ends of the fractured bone were sawed off, and fit together. After six months…
Fractured radius and ulna with gun shot wound
Case history: This radius and ulna was from a 35 year old soldier injured on July 3, 1863 at Gettysburg. His radius was fractured by gunshot and his ulna by a two inch long piece of fragmented gun barrel. The soft tissue of the soldier's arm was…
Tourniquet, invented during the American Civil War for the personal use of soldiers
This tourniquet was invented during the American Civil War for the personal use of soldiers. Large numbers of these tourniquets were manufactured and supplied to the war's participants.
Inscription: "Lambert S. JANY 7 1869"
Inscription: "Lambert S. JANY 7 1869"
Cranium fragment with embedded bullet
This cranium fragment is from a solider of the American Civil War. He exhibited no symptoms after injury. The wound developed into a brain abscess and the soldier died 3 weeks after being shot.
Inscription: in pencil on bottom of base: "Civil War /…
Inscription: in pencil on bottom of base: "Civil War /…
Excised head of humerus
This amputated head of the left humerus was excised from a soldier in the American Civil War. He was shot at the battle of Fredericksburg. The amputation was performed sometime after the injury by Algernon Coolidge and was successful. The soldier was…
Portion of fractured comminuted right femur
Inscription: "6691" written on the shaft in red; "6691" etched on the underside of the base.
Distal end of left femur with fracture and lead ball embedded in lateral condyle
The preparation was originally collected and mounted by the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C., most likely number 460. Army Medical Museum 460 was a gunshot fracture of the femur from an Union soldier in the American Civil War. Inscription: in…
Distal Portion of a Right Femur with an Embedded Musket Ball
Inscription: "6693 12-3" Stamped on the bone in red; "6693 12-3 12" written on the underside of the base in pencil.
Fractured Right Humerus- Proximal Portion, due to Gunshot Wound
Inscription: "No. 152" written on the underside of the base in pencil; "6780." written on a small label adhered to the bone.
United States Navy amputation kit
These instruments were used by Union Navy Assistant Surgeon and 1861 Harvard Medical School graduate Charles Thatcher Hubbard aboard the USS Unadilla during the American Civil War. The Unadilla was one of the Union's 2390 day gunboats and was…
Chess Pieces
The wooden chess set pieces were carved by Zabdiel Boylston Adams and Fred Guyer during internment at Libby Prison in May 1864. Both were Captains in the Union army and injured and captured at the Battle of Wilderness.
Fractured humerus with healed amputation
Case history: From an active, and powerful man who served as an artillerist in the American Civil War. In 1864, his hand was severely injured by the premature discharge of a cannon. It was amputated at the wrist joint. Subsequently, the forearm was…
Cranial section with saber wound
Catalog entry: Extensive sabre wound of the right frontal bone; there is still a small opening quite through, though the injury seems to have been well repaired. Received on board one of the United States vessels during the war of 1812.
Skull with ball lodged in frontal bone
Catalog entry: A cranium, showing a ball lodged in the frontal bone, just above the right orbit and towards the median line, and which had been in that situation for about twenty-five years. The patient, aged forty-five, was sail-maker on board the…
Fragment of mandible lost from gunshot wound
Catalog entry: A large portion of the lower jaw shot away, the patient recovering with a very good mouth. The specimen consists of a single, entire piece, including the whole width of the jaw, and to the full extent of the incisor teeth, and one, if…
Humerus with ununited fracture
Catalog entry: Ununited fracture about the middle of the humerus, several large, irregular masses of bone having been formed about the fractured extremities.
Ticket granting privileges to the Marine Hospital at Charlestown, with engraving
Paper ticket granting medical privileges to the Marine Hospital at Charlestown by "The Physician of the Marine Hospital, Charlestown." Ticket adorned with rust-orange engraving that depicts the hospital and a vessel off-loading a wounded sailor. The…
Women in Medicine: Guide For Classroom Use
The video series "Women in Medicine" was designed for use in social studies and science classes and in career counseling centers. Nine videotaped profiles introduce students to distinguished women in academic medicine. There are study questions for…
Photograph album for travels through Central and South America
Likely incomplete photograph album illustrating a trip through Central and South America in the 1910s and 1920s, including stops at the Panama Canal. The photographs include shots of dredgers on the river and trips taken by boat, as well as tourist…
Oral history interview with Malkah Notman (video)
Malkah T. Notman is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (1988-), a Psychiatrist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (formerly Beth Israel Hospital), Boston (1973-), and faculty of the Boston…
William and Lucy Graves Taliaferro photograph album
First of four photograph albums of William and Lucy Graves Taliaferro. Compiled photographs reflect the Taliaferros' domestic and professional life, including their extensive travels in Europe and the Americas. The Taliaferro's were a research team…
William and Lucy Graves Taliaferro photograph album
Second of four photograph albums of William and Lucy Graves Taliaferro. Compiled photographs reflect the Taliaferros' domestic and professional life, including their extensive travels in Europe and the Americas. The Taliaferro's were a research team…
William and Lucy Graves Taliaferro photograph album
Third of four photograph albums of William and Lucy Graves Taliaferro.Compiled photographs reflect the Taliaferros' domestic and professional life, including their extensive travels in Europe and the Americas. The Taliaferro's were a research team…
Calves' Heads and Brains, or A Phrenological Lecture
Even in the first years of its popularity during the early nineteenth century, phrenology was a source of amusement to many and became a target for a number of satiric artists of the day, such as George Cruikshank, the "Phiz" illustrator of Charles…
An Old Maid's Skull Phrenologised
This English satiric print illustrates some of the absurdities associated with phrenology, as the traits and marked skulls of dogs, birds, and horses are treated on a par with humans. The phrenologist "Doctor S." may be intended to represent Johann…
The Influence of the Brain on the Form of the Head
This English translation of Franz Joseph Gall’s Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau was one of the Boston Phrenological Society’s first publication projects. In this passage, Gall describes how he isolated the faculties of attachment and…
Portrait of Johann Gaspar Spurzheim
Produced just after his sudden death, this portrait of Spurzheim holding a symbolical head is said to be one of the best productions from the studio of Boston painter Alvan Fisher. Dr. J. Mason Warren, the son of John Collins Warren, purchased the…
Outlines of Phrenology
Published while Spurzheim was touring in America, the Outlines of Phrenology was phenomenally popular, passing through four separate editions by 1834. The Outlines gives a brief overview of the theory behind phrenology, discusses the basic…
Silhouette of Johann Gaspar Spurzheim
Like the Alvan Fisher oil portrait, this silhouette of J. G. Spurzheim appears to have been produced during his final years on his tour through the United States. The object in his hand is, of course, a skull.
Ticket of Admission to the Demonstrative Course of Eighteen Lectures on Phrenology
This ticket is inserted at the flyleaf of a copy of the third American edition of Spurzheim’s treatise, Phrenology, or the Doctrine of the Mental Phenomena (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1834) and was issued for his popular course of lectures…
Notes Concerning Education in General in the Un[ited] St[ates] of America
While on tour in America, Spurzheim made extensive notes on the scenery and institutions of the country, contrasting the conditions of New York, New Haven, Hartford, and Boston. These notes may have been intended for publication but were left…
Death of Dr. Spurzheim
This unsigned obituary is one of several articles devoted to J. G. Spurzheim printed in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal at this time. Note the prominent medical figures, including Drs. John Collins Warren, James Jackson, Walter Channing, and…
A Catalogue of Phrenological Specimens Belonging to the Boston Phrenological Society
Formed after the death of Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, the Boston Phrenological Society assembled a large collection of skulls, masks, and casts of famous and infamous heads to illustrate the various phrenological faculties.
Receipt for Spurzheim's cranium from the Boston Phrenological Society
In 1850, after some years of dormancy, the Boston Phrenological Society's collection of casts and skulls was sold to Dr. John Collins Warren and later added to the specimens of the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School. This is Dr.…
An Examination of Phrenology
While a professor of anatomy and physiology at Columbian College in Washington, D.C., Thomas Sewall published these two lectures to students—one of the earliest attacks on phrenological doctrine—based on his study of the brain's…
Nasology, or, Hints towards a Classification of Noses
This extended joke at the expense of phrenology passed through several editions in the mid-19th century and was published under the pseudonym of Eden Warwick. George Jabet maintains that the nose, besides being an ornament to the face, or a…
Phrenological Reading of G. H. Clark
Lorenzo Niles Fowler compiled this notebook of phrenological readings of individuals encountered during his travels through upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky in 1834 and 1835. There are a number of examinations of…
The Illustrated Self-Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology
The Fowler brothers used The Illustrated Self-Instructor as both a popular handbook to phrenology and an advertising tool—the opening pages of each volume were used to record character assessments, such as this one for G. A. Hook, given by O.…
Verses Inscribed by a Phrenologist on a Skull
The variety of subjects allied to phrenology under the Fowler brothers is illustrated by this volume of their popular periodical. In addition to biographical sketches of prominent individuals, cranial analyses, and news of the progress of the…
Assortment of Symbolical Heads
Marked or numbered with the thirty-five faculties identified by J. G. Spurzheim, these 19th century symbolical heads remain the most enduring icon of the phrenological movement. Many heads of this type were produced and marketed by the Fowler and…
Lorenzo Niles Fowler
This short guide to phrenology by Lorenzo Niles Fowler and his daughter, defines the various faculties and concludes with an essay describing the procedure for finding certain organs on the surface of the skull. "Let us take, then, for our starting…
Programme of Lectures, and Dates of Meetings, 1902
The Brighton and Hove Phrenological Association sponsored a varied course of lectures including "Phrenology and the Language of Handwriting", "The Brain and Nervous System", "How Phrenology Assists Intellectual, Moral, and Social Progress", and…
Physical Characteristics of John Athol Boyce
The British Phrenological Society collection includes a number of head measurements and readings from the early years of the 20th century. The recording phrenologist was probably James Webb of Layton, in Essex.
Phrenological Observations on Winston Churchill
Phrenological study and speculation was still current in the 1920s. This manuscript volume of an unpublished work is peppered with photographs and engravings of celebrities and notables, from traditional phrenological studies of Napoleon and Abraham…
Minutes of Fellows' Meeting
At this meeting of the British Phrenological Society, the phrenological characteristics of different types of teachers were discussed.
Phrenology: the Science of the Mind, the Student's Enchyridion
Designed for students and a testament to the enduring interest in phrenology, this manual attempts to reconcile phrenology with anatomy and "to demonstrate the possibility of the accurate localisation of the phrenological organs in the brain, upon…
Advertisement for the Leicester Hydro and Electropathic Establishment
Dr. T. Timson, a Fellow of the British Phrenological Society, had a flourishing practice in Leicester in the 1930s. This is an advertisement for his clinic, which incorporated phrenology, massage, chiropractic, and osteopathy.
Fees for Phrenological Examination
Dr. T. Timson, a Fellow of the British Phrenological Society, had a flourishing practice in Leicester in the 1930s. This is his fee schedule for head readings.
Franz Joseph Gall, Dr. der Arzneykunst zu Wien
A controversial figure even in his own lifetime, Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) may properly be considered the father of phrenology, although Gall himself never used that term, and phrenology as we think of it was far removed from…
Galileo and Bruegel from Anatomie et Physiologie du Système Nerveux
Anatomie et Physiologie du Système Nerveux is the seminal work in which Gall discusses the location of the original twenty-seven cerebral faculties and the functions of each. The first two volumes, concerning the anatomical structure of the…
Letter from Johann Gaspar Spurzheim to Honorine Spurzheim
During the course of his extensive travels through Europe and America, J. G. Spurzheim maintained a vigorous correspondence with his wife, Honorine, describing the people he met, the hospitals, prisons, and schools he visited, and the spread of…
Symbolical Head
The most enduring icon of phrenology, the symbolical head is a model showing the thirty-five phrenological faculties. They were used both as teaching tools and as advertising.
Diagram of the Phrenological Faculties
An illustration of the thirty-five phrenological faculties, as seen in Samuel Roberts Wells' How to read character : a new illustrated hand-book of phrenology and physiognomy, for students and examiners : with a descriptive chart. This particular…
Sir Francis Galton
Photograph of Sir Francis Galton from his book Memories of my life. Found on the plate facing page 244.
Hereditary genius : an inquiry into its laws and consequences
Francis Galton, influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, came to believe that, following research into the biographies and genealogies of 400 famous individuals—judges, statesmen, poets, painters, scientists and athletes—genius was…
Men of Science
Francis Galton, influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, came to believe that, following research into the biographies and genealogies of 400 famous individuals—judges, statesmen, poets, painters, scientists and athletes—genius was…
Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development
In the notes to the introduction of this work, which assembles and revises his writings since the publication of Hereditary genius, Galton coins the neologism which gave its name to a movement: “That is, with questions bearing on what is termed…
Memories of My Life
At the conclusion of this autobiographical account, Galton considers the goal of his work on eugenics and its contrast to Darwinian natural selection: “Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the power of preventing many…
Life History Album
Intended to chart the medical history of an individual from birth until the age of 75, the Life history album, edited by Francis Galton, allows for notes on the genealogy, life, development, marriage, children, height and weight observations,…
Composite Portraits
An arrangement of composite portraits by Henry Pickering Bowditch (1840-1911) in the publication from the second International Exhibition of Eugenics in 1921. While the composite photographs on display here as well as others in the collections of the…
Henry Pickering Bowditch
A picture of Henry Pickering Bowditch. Bowditch was appointed Assistant Professor of Physiology in 1871, Professor of Physiology, 1876, and became the first George Higginson Professor of Physiology in 1902, Emeritus, 1906. Bowditch served as Dean of…
Twelve Boston physicians and their composite portrait
Dr. H. P. Bowditch took photographs of himself and eleven colleagues—all members of a physician’s dining club, the Kappa Pi Eta—in 1887 and again in 1892 and then devised a composite portrait of all twelve to isolate the common…
A group of Saxon soldiers and their composite
Bowditch reproduced and described this composite image of Saxon soldiers, as well as a composite image of Wend soldiers, in his article, “Are composite photographs typical pictures?” printed in McClure’s magazine in September 1894.…
A group of Wend soldiers and their composite
Bowditch reproduced and described this composite image of Wend soldiers, as well as a composite image of Saxon soldiers, in his article, “Are composite photographs typical pictures?” printed in McClure’s magazine in September 1894.…
Letter to Henry Pickering Bowditch from Sir Francis Galton
Galton admires the composites of Saxon and Wend soldiers done by Bowditch. He says: “The composites are indeed beautiful and quite different in ‘type’ from both American and English. The Saxon & Wends being more alike to one…
Heredity : its relation to human development
In 1880, Bostonian Loring Moody, familiar with Galton’s work, issued a circular to form an Institute of Heredity, part school, part library, to promote lectures and interest in addressing social ills through eugenic principles. The circular…
Heredity in relation to eugenics
Harvard graduate, Charles Benedict Davenport, was one of the leaders of the American eugenics movement. In 1904, he became the director of the Carnegie Institution’s Station for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, on Long Island, and…
A group of deaf-mute families from Maine
As part of his research on deafness, Alexander Graham Bell made statistical analyses of the deaf-mutes and determined that deafness was hereditary and that the number of intermarriages between deaf-mutes was high and growing. He concluded that…
Fifth generation of the Juke Family
One of the first and most influential of the eugenic studies of a pseudonymous family, Richard L. Dugdale’s The Jukes traces the origins of imprisoned members of the same family back to the colonial period to examine inherited and environmental…
The Kallikak family : a study in the heredity of feeble-mindedness
Henry Herbert Goddard’s study, The Kallikak family, tracks 480 descendants of Martin Kallikak, known as the “Old Horror,” the illegitimate son of a feeble-minded girl. Among the descendants were alcoholics, prostitutes, epileptics,…
Heredity and human progress
In this radical work, Washington physician, William Duncan McKim, proposed moving beyond sterilization of the “very weak and the very vicious” to liquidation by the state through the use of carbonic acid gas. In his chapter “A…
Eugenical News
One of the early periodical publications devoted to eugenics, the Eugenical news started in 1916 and was, at various times, the official organ of the Eugenics Research Association and then the American Eugenics Society. Appearing monthly, the…
The Eugenics Review
The official organ for the Eugenics Society in England, The eugenics review first appeared in 1909 and was published continuously until this, its final volume under that title. In 1969, the publication was reformulated as the Journal of biosocial…
Reactivation of the Dight Institute, 1947-1949: Counseling in human genetics
Physician Charles F. Dight (1856-1938) was the first president of the Minnesota Eugenics Society and promoted the state’s adoption of a law for the sterilization of the feeble-minded and insane in 1925. He bequeathed his fortune to the…
Charles Fremont Dight
Picture of Charles Fremont Dight from Bulletin no. 1 of the Dight Institute
Certificate of appreciation from the Second International Congress of Eugenics
For her contribution to the Second International Congress of Eugenics exhibit, Dr. Canavan was presented with this certificate of appreciation.
Eugenics, genetics and the family : scientific papers of the Second International Congress of Eugenics
There were three international meetings of eugenics researchers during the period of the movement’s greatest influence and activity. This volume reprints the scientific papers from the Second Congress, held at the American Museum of Natural…
The Second International Exhibition of Eugenics
Harry Hamilton Laughlin was chairman of the Committee on Exhibits associated with the Second International Congress and organized this display at the American Museum of Natural History in the fall of 1921. A gift of $2,500 from Mrs. E. H. Harriman…